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Between the Andes and the Ocean 



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BETWEEN THE ANDES 
AND THE OCEAN 



AN ACCOUNT OF AN INTEREST- 
ING JOURNEY DOWN THE WEST 
COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA FROM 
THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA TO 
THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN 



BY 



WILLIAM ELEROY £URTIS 

AUTHOR OF "THE YANKEES OF THE EAST," "THE CAPITALS OF SPANISH 

AMERICA," "VENEZUELA, THE LAND WHERE IT IS 

ALWAYS SUMMER," ETC., ETC. 




HERBERT S. STONE AND COMPANY 

ELDRIDGE COURT, CHICAGO 

MDCCCC 



67768 

Library of Congress 

Two Copies Recei vo 
OCT 29 1900 

Copyright entry 

FISST COPY. 

2nd Copy DtriWered to 

ORDER DIVISION 
' 13 1900 



FSL3LI2> 



COPYRIGHT, igOO, BY 
HERBERT 3. STONE & CO 



THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME ORIGINALLY AP- 
PEARED IN THE COLUMNS OF THE CHICAGO RECORD 
AND ARE REPUBLISHED IN THIS FORM WITH THE 
KIND PERMISSION OF MR. VICTOR F. LAWSON 




TO 

MY BELOVED DAUGHTER 
ELSIE EVANS CURTIS 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 
I 
13 
24 
42 
62 
8l 
92 

no 
127 
146 
162 

177 
195 

206 



I. The Voyage and the Isthmus , . • -. 

II. Concerning the Panama Canal . 

III. The Ancient City of Panama and the Canal 

IV. Cruising Along the West Coast 
V. The Deceptive City of Guayaquil 

VI. The President and Government of Ecuador 

VII. The Zona Seca of South America 

VIII. The City of the Three Kings 

IX. Peru in Peace and Prosperity . 

X. The Congress of Peru in Session . 

XL The State of the Church .... 

XII. The Monks and the Monasteries . 

XIII. The Remarkable Railways of Peru . 

XIV. The Mecca of a Prehistoric Race 
XV. Over the Deserts and Mountains to Bolivia 218 

XVI. The Quaint Old City of Arequipa . . 235 

XVII. Cuzco, the Capital of the Incas . . 253 

XVIII. From Lake Titicaca to La Paz . . 265 

XIX. The City of La Paz .... 287 

XX. Political and Social Conditions in Bolivia 310 

XXI. Copocobana — Shrine of the Patron Saint of 

South America 329 

XXII. The Nitrate Deserts of Chile . . 353— 

XXIII. The City of Valparaiso . . . .371 

XXIV. Santiago, the Capital of Chile . . . 384 
XXV. The President and the Government of Chile 403 

XXVI. The Backbone of the Continent . . 414 

XXVII. Southern Chile and Tierra del Fuego . 429 



Between the Andes and the Ocean 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS 

It takes from six to seven days to make the journey of 
1,970 miles from New York to the isthmus. You might go 
from New Orleans in three days and from Tampa in two. 
The Illinois Central Railway and the Plant Company would 
put on lines of vessels to bring freight for their railway trains, 
but for the quarantine regulations, which make traffic during 
the summer months almost impossible, at least impracticable. 

There is always more or less fever in the isthmus. It is 
difficult to keep it away, for Colon and Panama catch human 
driftwood from all over the American continent, and are the 
asylum for refugees from plagues as well as politics. When a 
man is run out of any of the west-coast countries or Central 
America for any reason he always strikes for Panama. It has 
a fine, large hotel, indifferently kept, but commodious, and a 
number of handsome residences that may be rented for short 
terms, like the houses in Washington and London for the 
season. If their walls could talk they might tell interesting 
tales of intrigue and conspiracy, for since the days when 
Pedrarias, governor of the first colony on the American conti- 
nent, overthrew Balboa in a shameful manner, Panama has 
sheltered adventurers and conspirators. 

If you will look at the map you will notice how readily the 
steamers might run down from New Orleans and Tampa, and 
it would be easy to establish a system of sanitary inspection 
that would prevent the transportation of disease germs among 



2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the passengers and freight. Havana has always been much 
worse than Colon or Panama as a hotbed of yellow fever, and 
yet, under the vigilance of the marine hospital service, the 
Plant steamers have run back and forth every night for a num- 
ber of years without ever having carried a case of contagion. 

It would be a great thing for the Mississippi Valley to have 
a line of steamers from New Orleans to the isthmus. Most of 
the freight in the hold of the good ship Finance that brought 
us down originated west of the Allegheny mountains. It 
should have gone to its market on longitudinal lines. 

The voyage from New York is delightful. People always 
expect a little weather off Cape Hatteras, but the captain of 
our ship said that was a popular delusion. He declared that 
Hatteras has no more storms than any other point on the 
earth's surface. The land projects into the Atlantic and 
makes nasty sailing along that coast in bad weather, and there 
have been terrible disasters from time to time; therefore, 
Captain Sukef orth says that Cape Hatteras has unjustly got a 
bad name. He has been sailing this course for a number of 
years — I have forgotten how many — and declares that he has 
never met with a gale in the latitude of Hatteras. 

The severe weather of Hatteras is also due to the fact that 
it lies in the track of what are called the southwest storms; 
that is, storms that advance from the southwest and move 
northeastward. They are called northeasters on the Atlantic 
coast and are the severest of storms. Hatteras is in their 
direct path, just as Chicago is in the direct path of storms 
that advance from the west, and very near the path of all 
the storms that come down from the northwest. Taking the 
wind velocity for a month, Chicago exceeds Hatteras by about 
3,000 miles. 

The weather grows warmer day by day as you go south- 
ward on the sea as well as on the land, and you put on lighter 
clothing and rejoice that your stateroom is on the deck, where 
the trade winds, which a bountiful Providence provided to 
temper the heat of the tropics, can blow through the slats of 
your door and window blinds. The water is a dense indigo 
blue and very deep. You cross the deepest part of the 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS 3 

Atlantic Ocean. The days and nights are almost of equal 
length ; the sunsets are as gorgeous as any you can see on the 
Mediterranean, and there is no twilight. The sun rises 
promptly and without premonition at the hour appointed in 
the almanac, and when he has finished his day's work he drops 
below the horizon just as a tired sailor tumbles into his bunk 
when his watch is over. 

From New York the steamer takes a course due south until 
it "picks up" a light at Cape May si, at the tip end of Cuba, 
and then the course is turned a little to the southwest, passing 
east of Jamaica. The first land you see is Watling's Island, 
where Columbus stumbled upon a new world, and you are 
near enough to make out a tall lighthouse striped like a stick 
of candy, with the broad-eaved cottage of the keeper sitting 
on the rocks at its feet. There is a small settlement of white 
people and negroes on "Watling's Island, which belongs to the 
British, a schoolhouse, a little chapel sustained by the Church 
of England and a magistrate who represents the sovereignty 
of Queen Victoria under the supervision of the governor of 
the Bahamas, whose headquarters are at Nassau, New Provi- 
dence. 

Investigations that were made at the time of the World's 
Fair settled the long controversy about the landfall of Colum- 
bus to the satisfaction of nearly all Geographers. Rudolph 
Cronau, a German scientist; Fred A. Ober, an American; and 
the superintendent of the lighthouse service in the Bahamas, 
a British naval officer, Captain E. Scobell Clapp, made 
thorough explorations with the logbook of Columbus as their 
guide. They visited all the other islands in the neighbor- 
hood, but none corresponded in any way with the descriptions 
given by the admiral, while Watling's seemed to fit it exactly 
— even the coral reefs and the lagoons that gave him so much 
difficulty. 

The light that Columbus saw the night before the discovery 
was undoubtedly a torch in the hand of some faithful fisher- 
wife held up to guide her husband home, and Albert Bierstadt 
spent several weeks at Watling's painting a picture to com- 
memorate the Columbian anniversary and to give that worthy 



4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

woman an appropriate place in history. The members of the 
board of lady managers from New York State adopted her 
and her torch as a design for their seal, and now I suppose 
she is one of us. 

After leaving Watling's the steamer threads its way 
through the Bahama archipelago and gives the passengers a 
panorama of picturesque rocks, groves of cocoanut trees, 
groups of villages where the sponge fishers live and lonely 
lighthouses that guide the commerce on a course that is fol- 
lowed by many vessels. We pass very close to Navassa, a 
phosphate rock that rises out of the ocean in a conspicuous 
manner, and is celebrated in the history of the pirates of the 
Spanish main, who used it as a rendezvous and often marooned 
mutineers and prisoners there. 

Until the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands Navassa 
was the only outlying piece of territory owned by the United 
States, and became our property many years ago by an act of 
congress which extended the sovereignty of Uncle Sam over 
any uninhabited island of the ocean which might be found 
valuable by Americans engaged in mining phosphates and 
other minerals. A couple of islands off the coast of Peru 
came within this category, and ownership was claimed by an 
American discoverer, but the Peruvian government objected 
and we gave them up, although the alleged owners remon- 
strated fiercely about it. A Baltimore company is digging 
phosphate on Navassa and hauling it up to fertilizer factories 
on the banks of the Chesapeake bay. 

The steamers of the Atlas line, which which ply between 
New York and the northern ports of Central and South 
America, always stop at Fortune Island in the Bahamas to 
take on a gang of roustabouts to handle their freight at 
Carthagena, Greytown and other places. The inhabitants 
of Fortune Island are chiefly negroes who escaped in early 
times from slavery in Cuba and other of the West India 
Islands. They are industrious, sober and frugal, and much 
better laborers than the natives on the main coast. They are 
paid fifty cents a day and "keep" by the steamships, which 
they consider good wages. On the voyage from New York 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS 5 

south the steamers slow up as they approach Fortune Island, 
and immediately a barge comes out from the shore, contain- 
ing twenty-five or thirty robust black men who clamber over 
the decks and drop into their familiar places. On the return 
voyage they are landed in a similar way and have a couple of 
weeks of rest at home with their families. 

The keeper of the lighthouse at Castle Island runs a sort 
of ocean postoffice. He receives messages, letters and news- 
papers from passing vessels for others that cruise about those 
waters. The Pacific Mailers going south from New York 
used to leave letters and bundles of newspapers for the north- 
bound ships of the same line. As most of the vessels run on 
schedule time, the lightkeeper knows when to expect them 
and puts out in a little boat when he sees them coming. 

To look at from a distance — from the deck of a ship in the 
harbor — Colon is one of the prettiest towns on the coast, but 
when you get ashore it is a disappointment and a delusion. 
The houses are built of wood instead of stone, as in Panama, 
Carthagena and the cities of Mexico, and most of them are 
painted a dull lead color, which was adopted by the canal 
company as a sort of trademark, as the Santa Fe Company has 
taken yellow. Colon has burned several times. The town 
was entirely destroyed in 1885 and again in 1890, and many of 
the ruins have never been rebuilt or even cleared away. 
Some of the most conspicuous sites on the main streets are 
cellars filled with debris, weeds and stagnant water. For 
protection against future disasters the railway company estab- 
lished a "fire zone," that is, a wide strip of land between its 
property and the rest of the town, so that the flames cannot 
be so easily communicated. There are said to be 10,000 
inhabitants, but they must be packed away very closely if the 
population is so large. 

The harbor of Colon is a lovely sheet of water, about two 
miles across, and inclosed with beautiful hills whose bright 
green foliage never fades, and groups of palms here and there 
nod lazily to each other as they admire the reflections of their 
own beauty in the water. The palm is the peacock of trees. 
It is the most graceful thing that grows, and every movement 



6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

of its plumage is on artistic lines, but you can't help feeling 
that it is vain and conceited and considers itself better than 
the bamboos and the ferns and other foliage you find in the 
tropics. 

Colon is one of the few places in South America where 
steamers can go up to a dock. The Panama railroad, the 
Pacific Mail and other transportation companies have erected 
convenient and commodious warehouses of corrugated iron in 
which freight can be transferred from the hold of a steamer 
to a railway car with little trouble or effort. The packages 
are classified as they are taken on the dock. Roustabouts 
seize them as fast as they are raised from the hold and roll 
their trucks before a clerk, who glances at the addresses, 
checks them off, and then directs each to a car which bears 
the name of its destination. When the cars are full a little 
engine that reminds one of certain people comes snorting and 
fussing along with a tremendous idea of its importance and 
replaces the full cars with empty ones. There is a great deal 
of commerce. A dozen or more steamship lines converge 
there from all points of the northern hemisphere. 

The harbor is dangerous because the entrance is toward the 
north, and the fierce gales they call ' 'northers" come howling 
over the Caribbean sea two or three times in the winter 
season, about as frequently as blizzards in our own latitude. 
Then ships have to get out and steam around in the storm or 
go ashore, because if they remain moored to the docks they 
will be pounded to pieces, and there is not holding ground for 
anchors in the harbor against the tremendous seas and winds. 
Lying beside one of the piers is the rusty skeleton of a foolish 
ship that refused to heed the warning and remained at its 
dock, where it is now and ever will be an example to reckless 
mariners. 

The railroad company occupies one end of the town with 
shops and boarding houses, and the canal company the other 
end, where there is a group of villas of the most ornate and 
elaborate "gingerbread" school of architecture, which were 
erected by Count de Lesseps for the comfort of his large and 
luxurious staff of managers and engineers. They were 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS 7 

elegantly fitted out and equipped with every possible conven- 
ience regardless of expense. There are clubs, billiard rooms, 
libraries and hospitals, and all the et ceteras of a colony of 
cultured gentlemen (except churches) which cost a million or 
two of dollars, and for years have been kept from destruction 
at an expenditure of $30,000 a month. There are stables and 
fire-engine houses, warerooms for commissary stores, cook- 
shops and bakeries, and a low, cool-looking hotel for the 
accommodation of transient visitors. The railway company 
takes equally good care of its men. It asks a good deal of 
them to come down and work in this climate, and with com- 
mendable consideration makes them as contented as possible. 
The hospitals and clubrooms, hotels and boarding houses that 
have been provided for the railway hands are quite as com- 
fortable as those erected by the canal company, but are not 
so ornate or elegant. 

The French people call the canal colony Christo Colombo, 
the Spaniards call it Christoval Colon and the Americans have 
named it plain Christopher Columbus. The most beautiful, 
but at the same time the most inappropriate, statue to the 
discoverer that was ever erected stands on the point where 
two avenues of palm trees converge, and overlooks the 
entrance to the canal. It represents Columbus in the garb of 
a scholar, with a benign expression upon his countenance and 
his hand resting upon the tresses of a crouching Indian girl of 
exquisite face and figure. This beautiful bronze was erected 
by the ex-Empress Eugenie. 

Under a cocoanut grove at the railroad end of Colon is 
another statue erected by the Panama Company in honor of 
William H. Aspinwall, John L. Stephens and Henry Chauncey, 
the three men to whose enterprise the world is indebted for 
rapid transit across the isthmus. Near the little station of 
Ahaca Lagarto, on the line of the road, is another monument 
to Mr. Stephens, who was equally famous as a historian, a 
diplomatist and an engineer. It is an enormous gramalota tree 
which overhangs the track, and has been allowed to remain as 
a memorial because under the shelter of its luxurious foliage 
Mr. Stephens died. He located the right of way and directed 



8 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the surveys, which were nearly finished when he was taken ill 
of fever and was carried from the swamps to the foot of this 
tree. 

Near the Aspinwall monument is the American consulate, 
and just across the road is one of the few protestant churches 
in South America, which was erected by the railroad company 
for the benefit of its employes. It is a graceful piece of 
brownstone architecture. 

One night at the church we witnessed a wedding ceremony, 
interesting and unique. What impressed us most was the 
intermingling of the black and white races on an equality. 
The clergyman was white, the bridal couple were white, the 
ushers were colored and a surpliced choir of colored children 
sung the wedding hymns, both a processional and recessional, 
and chanted the responses. The organist was a full-blooded 
negro and played very well. The little chaps who sat in the 
choir were the color of ebony, their voices were well trained 
and they understood their part of the ceremony. 

There is a social distinction between the two races in Colon 
as everywhere, but in business, in religion and in education 
equality is recognized. The colored population comes from 
Jamaica, and other British colonies of the West Indies, and 
most of them are full-blood blacks. They mix and intermarry 
with the Chinese, who constitute a considerable and important 
portion of the population, and you frequently see colored 
women with almond-eyed babies in their arms ; but mulattoes 
are very scarce. The colored women wear stiffly-starched 
calicoes and the men immaculate suits of white duck. 

The vultures have charge of the health department. They 
are the official scavengers and garbage collectors and have a 
contract for cleaning the streets. There is a law to punish 
any person who shoots or otherwise disturbs them in the pur- 
suit of their occupation. 

If it were not for the vultures I do not know what Colon 
would be. There is no sewerage, and pools of filth abound 
in every block. Any town in any zone would be equally 
unhealthy, but the great discomfort is the humidity. The 
atmosphere is soaked with moisture. Everything drips. In 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS 9 

other countries during the wet season the rain falls regularly 
at certain hours of the day. You can expect a shower at 
Panama about 3 o'clock every afternoon during the rainy 
season and govern yourself accordingly. The rest of the day 
and the evening after 6 o'clock is delightful, and no one thinks 
of carrying an umbrella, but at Colon it rains all the time, 
and, according to the old proverb, it never rains but it pours ; 
as if the bottom dropped out of the sky. 

Colon and Panama are forty-seven miles apart. The rain- 
fall at Panama is about 92 inches annually, or about 8 feet. 
The rainfall at Colon has been 250 inches, or about 21 feet, 
and the people get it all in five months, an average of four 
feet a month precipitation, while in Arizona they only have a 
few inches. It takes all the rest of the year for the people to 
get dry. The heat in the dry season is more severe, but not 
so uncomfortable. The thermometer ranges from 80 to 90 
day and night. There is little moderation in the temperature 
after dark, but people easily adapt themselves to the condi- 
tions, and there is a certain fascination about the place that is 
difficult to comprehend. If you were to look the world over 
Colon would be the last place for any one to choose as a resi- 
dence, yet many call it home and claim an attachment as 
strong as people feel for the villages in which they were born 
or where their babies are buried. They go away, but are glad 
to come back again, where they can find mildew on their boots 
and clothing in the morning and everything has a dank and 
musty smell. 

The climate is not so unhealthy either, according to the 
opinions of the old settlers, who declare that whisky and 
imprudence cause most of the sickness, and that if tenderfeet 
would take ordinary care of themselves and observe simple 
sanitary precautions the cemetery at Monkey Hill would not 
be so large. Young men defy hygienic laws. They drink 
whisky, eat fruit at the wrong hours, sit around in damp 
clothing and expose themselves to dangers that would be fatal 
at home, and then, when their names appear in the list of the 
dead, their friends blame the climate. 

There have been revolutions and riots and robberies in 



io BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

times past, but there is no more orderly city of the same pop- 
ulation in any part of the world. Neatly uniformed policemen 
patrol the streets, but have little to do, and the docket of the 
criminal court seldom has anything but petty larceny cases. 
The railroad hands control affairs, and the superintendent is a 
king. Sometimes they have found it necessary to take the 
law into their own hands and enforce it for the protection and 
benefit of the public. 

There has been peace on the isthmus for a long time. The 
last serious revolution occurred in 1885, when a negro lawyer 
of Colon, by the name of Prestan, led a mob of roughs and 
roustabouts, who burned the town and maintained a reign of 
terror for several weeks. It was one of the most remarkable 
revolutions that ever occurred in America. It began in the 
domestic relations of Dr. Nunez, president of Colombia. He 
was for years the leader of the liberal party, and as its candidate 
was elected president, but wanted to share his honors with a 
brilliant and beautiful woman named Soledad, whose profile 
appears upon the coins of the country, and, in order to get a 
divorce, was compelled to make terms with the conservative 
party, which represented the church. He negotiated a con- 
cordat with the Vatican, turned over all the schools, colleges, 
libraries, hospitals and other public institutions to the priests 
and surrendered by a single act all that the liberal party had 
gained in forty years of fighting. It protested with force, the 
revolution became general and spread to the isthmus, where 
Prestan took advantage of the confusion and organized his 
mob. It is doubtful what he expected to gain, but the pre- 
vailing opinion is that he was after power as well as plunder, 
and intended, if possible, to make himself dictator on the 
isthmus. He was a negro of low origin, but obtained some 
education in Jamaica and had good natural abilities. 

Prestan escaped in disguise, but was recaptured and brought 
back to Colon to answer the charge of burning that city. 
There was not the slightest doubt of his guilt, for a hundred 
witnesses heard him threaten in advance to punish the people 
for resisting him. But so great was the man's influence, so 
terrorized was the entire community whose homes and prop- 



THE VOYAGE AND THE ISTHMUS n 

erty had been destroyed, that they feared to punish him, and 
the lot of hanging him fell to Captain Rountree, an old sailor 
of the Pacific Mail Co. Some people say that Rountree volun- 
teered to perform the duty, but however that might be he did 
it without hesitation. He rigged what sailors call "a pair of 
shears" with telegraph poles over a flat car in Bolivar Street, 
Colon, and when the noose was around Prestan's neck helped 
the negroes shove the car from under his feet. Two of Pres- 
tan's lieutenants were executed at the same time. One of 
them was known as Cocabola, the name of a particularly tough 
kind of timber, which he is said to have resembled. 

Prestan was not given "the benefit of the clergy" nor the 
three days' grace usually allowed condemned criminals down 
there. In all Spanish-American countries a man who is sen- 
tenced to die is given three days of life after the date upon 
which the sentence is ordered to be executed, for the same 
reason that similar consideration is offered those who have 
borrowed money, that he may have the advantage of any event 
that may occur in the meantime. Those three days are spent 
in a room called "en capilla," which means "the chapel." It 
is fitted up with an altar, a crucifix and other religious 
emblems. He is allowed the constant attendance of a priest, 
to receive visits from his friends and also to accept money, 
either solicited or voluntarily given, to be expended in masses 
for the repose of his soul. 

There is a splendid field for enterprise on the isthmus as 
well as in the Central American countries, both in mercantile 
trade and agriculture. The pioneer spirit is no greater in the 
English and the Germans than in the Americans, and our 
energy is no less, but they have gone abroad and entered into 
mercantile engagements, while our boys have remained at 
home to subdue the prairie and search the secrets of the 
mountains. Nearly all the wholesale trading, the importing 
and exporting and the banking business^in these countries is 
conducted by Germans, and very soon they will control the 
trade. They seem to adapt themselves to the climate better 
than other Europeans and to have a firmer hold upon the 
morals they bring with them from home. It is too often the 



12 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

case that an American or an Englishman coming into a 
tropical country relieves himself from moral restraint, as he 
would never think of doing at home. This seldom can be said 
of the Germans. Travelers also notice that they have greater 
physical stamina too. They do not succumb so easily as the 
other races to the enervating influence of a climate. Down in 
these hot countries it is very easy to do nothing, and the most 
energetic men are often tempted to spend their time in the 
contemplation of a purpose instead of its execution. The 
German settlers cannot be accused of that fault. They never 
seem to lose their activity. 

There is a prosperous California colony on the Chiriqui 
lagoon, about fifty miles from Colon, on the north shore of 
the isthmus. An American by the name of Thompson 
obtained a concession from the Colombian government about 
twenty years ago for a large tract of land, with the under- 
standing that he would locate a colony there. He made a 
contract with the navy department at Washington for the 
establishment of a repair and coaling station and secured an 
appropriation of $500,000 from congress to build dry docks, 
shops, wharves and quarters for officers and men. Several 
shiploads of coal were unloaded there, a survey was made and 
a town laid out, but somehow or another the scheme fell 
through. If I remember correctly, Secretary Hunt, who was 
the head of the navy in the Garfield administration, was 
opposed to the project and refused to spend the appropria- 
tion. Since then, however, a colony of several hundred 
people from California have taken up land and are said to be 
very prosperous. The location is the healthiest along the 
northern coast of the isthmus. The land rises rapidly from 
the coast as high as 2,000 feet, and the soil is well adapted for 
the cultivation of sugar, coffee, bananas, oranges and other 
fruits. In the higher altitudes the California people have 
planted large coffee groves, which are just beginning to bear. 
So prosperous have they become that a weekly steamer is now 
running between Chirigui and Colon to accommodate the 
traffic. 



II 

CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 

Abundant evidences of the extravagance and wastefulness 
of the De Lesseps Canal Company are seen on every hand 
between Colon and Panama ; reminiscences of the golden days 
when a rain of French francs fell upon the isthmus ; millions 
of dollars' worth of empty and useless structures and rusting 
machinery, and about eighteen miles of ditch half filled with 
debris. Not long ago some people who were digging a cellar 
for a house came across a locomotive buried in the sand under 
the surface. You hear many of that sort of stories. After 
the reorganization the officers of the new company went about 
quietly picking up machinery and other articles that can be 
preserved and made useful, and has been making an honest 
demonstration to retain the concession and furnish a founda- 
tion upon which to sell the franchise or raise the means to 
complete the work. 

After the failure of the De Lessep's Panama Company, in 
February, 1889, the canal went into the hands of a receiver. 
A new company was organized in October, 1894, which 
appointed an engineer commission consisting of Gen. Abbott 
of the United States Army; Mr. Fulscher, the engineer 
director in charge of construction of the Kiel canal in Ger- 
many; Hr. Koch, an engineer commissioner engaged on the 
same enterprise; W. H. Hunter, chief engineer of construc- 
tion on the Manchester canal; A. A. Fteley, chief engineer of 
the New York aqueduct commission, and several other able 
and experienced engineers from Europe and America, to make 
a thorough survey and recommend such modifications in the 
original plan of Count De Lesseps as they believed to be 
necessary to economy and success. The commission immedi- 
ately reported for duty, spent several months upon the isthmus 

13 



14 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and formulated a new plan, which has since been adopted and 
is now being carried out. It was possible to utilize most of 
the work that was done by the original company, although the 
greater part of the money which it spent was permanently 
wasted. 

The original plan of Count de Lesseps was to build an 
ordinary sea level canal without locks, open from ocean to 
ocean, in the bed of the Chagres River — or, in other words, to 
extend the Chagres River, which empties into the Atlantic, 
through an artificial channel into the Pacific; but the new 
commission recommended that this plan be abandoned, owing 
to the excessive and expensive excavations through the moun- 
tains that would be necessary, and because of the difficulty 
and expense of taking care of the enormous floods that fall 
there during the rainy season. The Chagres River drains an 
immense watershed, and the rainfall is often so heavy that it 
rises ten or fifteen feet in an hour. The new plan recom- 
mended by the engineers contemplates a familiar, old-fash- 
ioned system of locks and dams to raise vessels in transit to a 
maximum elevation of sixty-eight feet above tidewater. 
The three great problems to which I referred are: 
i. The regulation of the water supply and the control of 
the floods in the rainy season. 

2. The landslides which occur frequently during these 
rains. 

3. The effect of the climate upon the health of the em- 
ployes. 

As represented by the new commission of engineers, these 
constitute the only serious problems to be [considered ; the 
remainder of the work is plain, ordinary engineering. 

Under the new plans the total length of the canal will be 
forty-six miles, of which three miles is a channel dredged in 
the bottom of the Bay of Panama to deep water, leaving forty- 
three miles of inland construction. Of this fifteen miles on 
the Atlantic side, between Colon and the town of Bohio, and 
seven on the Pacific side, between Panama Bay and Mira- 
flores, are on the sea level, and most of it was excavated by 
the De Lesseps Company, although the ditches are now prac- 



CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 15 

tically useless, having been filled with debris and earth washed 
from the banks until they cannot accommodate boats drawing 
more than three feet of water. Nevertheless, this is an easy 
and comparatively inexpensive piece of work. The soil is clay 
and sand, and the great modern dredges, like those used on 
the Chicago Drainage Canal, could deepen it twenty-four or 
thirty-two feet in short order. 

This leaves twenty-four miles of canal to be constructed 
with locks, and of that 'distance fourteen "miles will be the 
Chagres River transformed into an artificial lake, covering 
13,585 acres, or twenty-one square miles, between Bohio and 
Obispo on the Atlantic side of the watershed. This lake has 
been decided upon as the most simple and economical solution 
of the first problem stated. It will contain 53,000,000,000 
cubic feet of water, will have a mean level of fifty-six feet 
above the sea and during the summer floods can be raised to a 
maximum of sixty-five feet above tide water without danger 
of overflow. It is intended to conduct into this lake by differ- 
ent channels all of the rainfall upon the Atlantic watershed 
drained by the Chagres River, and that, having received the 
floods, it shall retain them until they are needed during the 
dry season. Two locks will admit ships coming from the 
Atlantic into this lake. 

The remaining ten miles of the canal, between the towns 
of Obispo and Miraflores, includes the summit, the continental 
divide, which is a hill called Culebra. This requires an enor- 
mous amount of excavation, and it is there that a gang of 
2,000 or 3,000 Jamaica negroes has been at work for two years. 
The canal follows the Chagres River to Obispo, the southern 
terminus of the lake. The sea-level ditch on the Pacific side 
begins at Miraflores. The summit of the continental divide, 
the hog's back, is about 500 feet above tide water. This has 
already been reduced to about 300 feet. The engineer com- 
mission has two plans, one for a ditch ten miles long across 
this divide at a level of ninety-six feet, and the other at a level 
of sixty-eight feet. It is not a question of engineering, but of 
economy. It is estimated that if the ninety-six foot level is 
adopted the canal can be built or finished for $87,000,000. If 



16 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the sixty-eight foot level is adopted it will cost considerably 
more, perhaps $100,000,000. The present company has been 
engaged for four years making this excavation. The first 
surveys indicated that the mountain was solid rock, but 
experience has demonstrated that the work will cost less than 
was at first estimated, because it proves to be of a soft mate- 
rial, which can be worked with greater economy than was sup- 
posed. It is what they call an "indurated clay schist." It 
requires blasting, but is easily handled and gives no serious 
trouble. At the same time the bugbear of landslides is no 
longer feared. 

From this height of sixty-eight or ninety-six feet the ships 
will be lowered into the Pacific by three sets of locks, and an 
additional tidal lock at the sea level at Miraflores, which offers 
of itself a considerable problem. The mean tide at Colon on 
the Caribbean Sea is only about eighteen inches. Curiously 
enough, at Panama, on the Pacific side, it varies from twenty- 
three feet, to twenty-eight, but that phenomenon offers no 
difficulties which the engineers cannot overcome. 

This, in short, is the plan of the proposed Panama Canal. 
It will be a few miles shorter than that of Kiel and a few 
miles longer than that of Manchester and the drainage canal 
of Chicago. There will be double locks 738 feet long, 82 feet 
wide and 32 feet deep at the ends of all the levels. The max- 
imum elevation of lift will be 32 feet, the average 30 feet. 
The locks will be founded upon rocks, built of the most 
perfect masonry, with single gates, revolving upon pivots, and 
the water will be supplied by pipes buried in the floors and 
delivered on each side throughout the whole length of the 
chambers. 

There will be five dams upon the canal proper and a sixth 
to retain a storage reservoir for the purpose of furnishing 
water to the high level of the canal in dry weather. About 
half way over the isthmus the Chagres River turns an angle 
to the northward, having come tumbling down the mountains 
from a place called Alhajuela, which is elevated several hun- 
dred feet above the sea. Here it is proposed to construct a 
dam and create a storage reservoir to catch the drain from 



CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 17 

a large watershed and retain it not only to feed the upper 
level, but also to provide power for an electric plant to run 
the locks, furnish light, etc. 

The dam at Alhajuela will be of concrete masonry, founded 
on and abutting against natural compact rock. The length of 
the crest will be 936 feet, the height 134 feet above the bed 
of the river and 164 feet above the foundation. The dam 
that makes the other lake will be 1,286 feet long, 75 feet above 
the bed of the river and 93 feet above the foundations. It is 
confidently believed by the commission of eminent engineers 
which I have mentioned that these two dams will take care of 
all the water that can fall on the isthmus during the rainy 
season without injury to the canal. During their construction 
the river will be diverted through a tunnel and into a tempo- 
rary course. 

The commission had before it the records of floods for 
thirty years. That of 1879 is said to have been the greatest 
within the memory of man, when the discharge of water was 
57,539 cubic feet a second at Gamboa and 109,410 cubic feet 
at Bohio. The duration was very short, being only forty-eight 
hours at Gamboa and ninety-six hours at Bohio. The reser- 
voir capacity as proposed is said to be sufficient to receive and 
retain a flood twice as great as that described. 

The original estimate of the cost of the canal by Count de 
Lesseps was $214,000,000. To this he added $26,000,000 
interest on bonds for twelve years before earnings commenced, 
making a total of $240,000,000. The receipts from the sale 
of stocks and bonds were $260,000,000. The actual expendi- 
tures for all purposes on the Isthmus of Panama, according to 
the books of the company, were $156,400,000. Of this 
$88,600,000 was expended in the work of actual construction 
and $67,800,000 represents the expenditures for property, the 
railroad, the piers, the erection of houses, shops, hospitals and 
other buildings, the purchase of machinery, the subsistence 
and the salaries of officers and men. 

At the high tide of construction there were 15,000 employes 
of the canal company on the isthmus, who were not only paid 
big wages, but were sheltered and fed and furnished with all 



j8 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

luxuries, including wines, horses and carriages and the most 
elaborate outfits. The company even provided libraries, 
pianos and other musical instruments, billiard tables, solid 
silver table service, liveried footmen and valets for its 
employes. A house was built there for the use of Count de 
Lesseps and a similar one for his son, at a cost, it is said, of 
$250,000, although they could be replaced for $10,000 each. 
Along the shore of the bay, on Christopher Columbus point, as 
they call it, is a sea wall, composed of blocks of concrete, 
placed there to protect the lawn that surrounds the villa that 
the president of the canal company was expected to occupy 
when he came to the isthmus. Some say that those blocks of 
concrete cost $75 each; some say they cost $250 each, and 
there are thousands of them. 

The greatest number of the houses, hospitals, machine 
shops and other property of the original company still remain, 
although they are in a state of partial decay. Everything 
made of wood rots quickly in this terrible climate, but the 
present company is keeping things in good repair and pre- 
serving everything possible. In addition to what I have 
described there is a well-equipped railroad forty-seven miles 
long, a fleet of three steamers, tugs, lighters, warehouses, 
machine shops, piers, terminal facilities and so on, which, in 
the last report of the company, are valued at $11,806,579. 
Including this and the eighteen miles of ditch dug by the old 
company, now half filled with debris, and the work of excava- 
tion that has been done on the continental divide, the franchise 
from the government of Colombia, and everything else that 
belongs to the company, the assets of the enterprise are valued 
at $90,000,000. It is estimated by the engineer commissioners 
that it will cost $87,000,000 to complete the canal. And they 
figure that they will need $15,000,000 for interest and unfor- 
seen expenses, which makes the total $192,000,000. 

The franchise runs until 1904, when the canal must be 
completed, and from that date for ninety-nine years. The 
company has a strip of land 650 feet wide on each side of the 
canal and a grant of 1,235,500 acres wherever it may be 
selected in the State of Panama. It is exempt from taxation 



CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 19 

and all merchandise imported for its use is exempt from cus- 
toms dues. The Colombian government is to receive 5 per 
cent of the gross earning for the first twenty-five years, 6 per 
cent for the second twenty-five years, 7 per cent for the third 
twenty-five and 8 per cent for the remainder of the concession. 

Under its treaty with Colombia the government of the 
United States is under obligations to preserve peace upon the 
right of way and guarantees free transit upon the canal. 

The new company left the ditches as it found them and has 
been working in the interior on the most difficult and expen- 
sive part of the survey, carrying excavations through the sum- 
mit of the continental divide, which reaches a level of about 500 
feet. It is the lowest point on the backbone of America from 
Bering Straits to Tierra del Fuego and it seems as if nature 
intended to break the continent here. It is an extraordinary 
fact that Columbus in Tiis dreams conceived that a navigable 
passage existed, or ought to exist, at this spot, and cruised up 
and down the coast with his feverish eyes scanning inlet and 
creek and bay in search for it. His instinct or his intuition, 
if you prefer that word, told him that it must be here, and it 
is the spot where the land is the narrowest and the lowest in 
all America. 

The cost of excavation is estimated as follows : 

Atlantic level $ 3,969,700 

Bohio level 6,412,500 

Summit level 22,904,300 

Paraiso level 1,248,100 

Pedro Miguel . 922,700 

Pacific level 5,864,700 

Revetment of canal 1,351,000 

Contingent expenses 4,053,000 

Total $46,706,000 

The cost of five locks with which it is proposed to overcome 
the elevation of the isthmus in preference to digging the 
canal on the level of the sea is estimated upon a basis of $9.65 
per cubic meter for the masonry, material and labor included, 
as follows : 



ao BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Twin locks at Bohio $6,217,700 

Twin locks at Obispo 5,776,100 

Twin locks at Paraiso 3,077,400 

Twin locks at Pedro Miguel . . . . 5,568,300 

Twin locks at Miraflores 3,049,200 

Operating machinery 323,200 

Contingent expenses 2,429,100 



Total cost of locks $26,416,100 

The cost of the six dams and spillways is calculated on a 
basis of $9.65 per cubic meter for masonry for five of them, 
and $11.58 for the sixth, at the big reservoir at Alhajuela, 
which is intended to catch and regulate the rainfall of the 
mountains and feed the highest level of the canal in the dry 
season : 



Dam and spillway at Bohio . . . 
Dam and spillway at Obispo . . 
Dam and spillway at Paraiso . . 
Dam and spillway at Pedro Miguel 
Dam and spillway at Miraflores . 
Dam and spillway at Alhajuela . 
Contingent expenses 



$2,119,300 

87,200 

260,300 

173,100 

9,700 

2,256,700 

783,700 



Total cost dams and spillways . $5,790,000 

An allowance of $3,008,000 is made for derivation and 
widening; $2,702,000 for changing the location of the Panama 
railroad, which now lies directly on the right of way selected 
by the canal; $312,100 for a railway track on the upper 
Chagres River, with $73,900 for contingencies, making a total 
of $3,088,^888 for railway construction which must be charged 
to the canal. 

For feeding channels $3,281,000 is estimated; $1,158,000 
for the purchase of right of way; and $2,509,000 for the cost 
of power plants, electrical apparatus, machinery, and engines. 
This makes $92,081,100, the estimated expense of completing 
the canal, and the engineers have added $6,755,000 for unfor- 
seen contingencies, and make the total $98,836,100, in addition 
to what has already been spent. The present value of the 
investment, including the franchise, all the property, rights 



CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 21 

and privileges, is appraised at $92,000,000, which raises the 
grand total to $190,636,100 as the full cost of a completed 
canal with five locks across the itshmus. A sea-level canal 
without locks would cost about $30,000,000 more, but the com- 
mission of engineers at present in charge has pronounced that 
impracticable, on account of the difficulty of controlling the 
rainfall and regulating the Chagres River. 

The cost of the Nicaragua canal is estimated as follows by 
the engineers named: 

Menocal $ 69,873,660 

Ludlow commission J 33, 47 2,893 

Walker and Haupt 118,113,000 

Col. Hains 134,808,000 

Chicago drainage contractors . . 115,000,000 

These estimates are based upon the cost of 67 cents per 
cubic meter for ordinary earth and $1.06 for rock, including 
the disposition of material. The workmen are negroes from 
Jamaica and other British colonies in the West Indies, who 
have been found to endure the climate better than any others, 
although they would be far from satisfactory as laborers to a 
Yankee contractor. They are paid $1 a day in Columbian 
silver, which is worth about 40 cents in United States gold. 
All the hands are housed and fed in a comfortable manner, 
are furnished medical attendance and are treated like railway- 
construction gangs in the United States. 

The canal people have tried every kind of labor — coolies 
from British Guiana and Trinidad, Chinese, Italians, negroes 
from the United States and a shipload of 800 black men was 
brought from Sierra Leone, Africa, but they did not thrive. 
The Africans were under contract for £2 sterling a month and 
everything found, and made no complaint of their treatment 
or their pay, but they would not work. They were not accus- 
tomed to such hard labor, nor to the food that was provided 
them, nor to the discipline. Instead of having an exclusively 
fruit and vegetable diet as at home they were given a good 
deal of meat, which affected them badly. The disease known 
as beri-beri became epidemic; many died, and after seven 
months the survivors were sent back to their homes. It is 



22 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

singular that the experiment should have turned out in that 
way, because the climate on the isthmus is almost exactly like 
that of their native country. The negroes from Mississippi, 
Alabama and Louisiana played out after a few weeks in a 
similar manner, and had to be taken home. The coolies were 
useless to handle a pick and shovel. They seem to have no 
strength in their arms and backs. The Chinese were better, 
but the government stopped them coming. The Italians 
drifted to the towns and refused to work. 

The sacrifice of human life by the De Lesseps Company 
was as reckless as the waste of money, although elaborate 
preparations were made to protect the health of the employes 
and to care for the sick. It will never be known how many 
died, but certainly a vast number, even more than while the 
railway was being built, and it is a popular saying that every 
tie represents a dead man. The present company, like the 
old one, has taken proper precaution for the protection of 
health, has established field hospitals for the care of those 
who are only slightly ill and erected a magnificent hospital at 
Panama for serious cases at a cost of 5,000,000 francs. It is in 
charge of competent physicians and sisters of charity, who 
were brought by the hundreds from France to minister to the 
sick. The chief disease is familiarly known as Chagres fever, 
and has afflicted tenderfeet upon the isthmus ever since the 
Spaniards first landed here. The doctors call it "pernicious 
fever," and say that it is caused by the malaria from the 
marshes. 

Dr. Lacroisade, who has resided on the isthmus since 1887, 
and now has charge of the sanitary welfare of the 3,800 
employes of the canal company, says that "during 1898 the 
Chagres fever did not cause a single death. Two diseases 
only belonging to the epidemic type appeared — the beri-beri, 
which was brought by the negro laborers from Africa, and 
disappeared when they were sent back, and yellow fever. 
The latter, after having been absent from the isthmus for at 
least six years reappeared in the summer of 1897, but was not 
really epidemic and occasioned only six deaths among the 
canal employes. From other infectious diseases, such as 



CONCERNING THE PANAMA CANAL 23 

smallpox, typhoid fever and diphtheria, the canal employes 
were practically exempt, and you may be assured that life on 
the isthmus is attended by no more danger from disease than 
elsewhere, even for natives of the United States and Europe, 
who, with the exception of the blacks and the negroes from 
the British Antilles, appear to resist the climate best. There 
would be no objection to this climate were it not for a constant 
feeling of fatigue and uneasiness, due to a temperature that is 
always high and an atmosphere that is always saturated with 
moisture. ' ' 

The advocates of the Panama canal lay great stress upon 
the fact that it has a good harbor at either end, capable of 
receiving the largest ships, while the Nicaragua canal has 
none, and the two that must be built present serious engineer- 
ing difficulties ; that a good railroad is now in operation along 
the entire route of the Panama canal, while one will have to 
be constructed in Nicaragua; that the supreme difficulties of 
the Panama route have already been developed and overcome, 
while those of the Nicaragua route are unknown ; that nothing 
of an experimental character is proposed on the Panama 
canal, while several projects in the Nicaragua scheme involve 
elements of novelty that are without precedent; that the 
length of the Panama canal is only forty-six miles, while that 
of Nicaragua is four times as great ; that there are no vol- 
canoes on the isthmus, while there are several in Nicaragua ; 
that earthquakes are practically unknown here, while in 
Nicaragua they are frequent; that the concession from the 
government of Colombia for the Panama canal is complete 
and satisfactory and there is only one nation to deal with, 
while two nations must be consulted in everything that 
involves the Nicaragua canal, and the concessions are com- 
plicated with conditions that are likely to prove embarrassing. 



Ill 

THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 

Panama is one of the oldest and one of the quaintest towns 
in America. Santo Domingo city antedates it a few years, 
but none of the settlements which the Spaniards founded 
before it upon tierra firma, as they called the continent, have' 
survived. The original city, known as Panama la Viega, 
about four miles southward on the shore of the bay, was 
settled in 15 19, gained a population of about 15,000 and pros- 
pered 162 years, when it was entirely destroyed by Morgan 
the buccaneer. According to the histories of the time he 
burned and blew up 7,000 houses, in which many people 
perished. It was done largely for revenge. The people had 
several weeks' warning of his approach — time enough to put 
all their money and valuables upon a ship and send it away, 
so that the pirates found nothing but merchandise to reward 
them for the tremendous task of crossing the jungles of the 
isthmus. 

The present city dates back to 1673 and during all that 
time it has managed to maintain its individuality, notwith- 
standing attacks from the Gauls, the Teutons and the Saxons, 
and, although a large part of its population belongs to those 
races it remains pure Spanish to this day. In 1849 the North 
Americans began to come in, the argonauts and gold-seekers, 
for it became the principal station upon the main route to 
California. The mercantile element is largely German. 
There has been a considerable Italian immigration, and in 
1879 a flood of Frenchmen came, and for ten years following 
everybody had money to burn. Then the bubble burst and 
after a hysterical period Panama settled down into its present 
somnolescence, although much improved by the invasion. The 
best and biggest buildings, except the bishop's palace, belong 

24 




A Panama Laundry, 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 25 

to the canal company. The governor has an imposing palace 
to live in and some of the rich merchants have erected hand- 
some homes. The cathedral is a venerable and massive struc- 
ture, and high mass on Sundays during the lively days of the 
canal was a religious pageant equal to any that can be seen in 
Paris. The bishop, the governor and the superintendent of 
the canal are the most conspicuous citizens, and Henry 
Schuber is the oldest inhabitant — the last survivor of a little 
colony of pioneers who settled there in 1849. 

Many of the landmarks of old Panama remain — the palaces 
of the grandees, the walls and watch towers overlooking the 
water, and the crumbling fortifications which in the day of 
their erection were among the most formidable in the world 
and resisted many an onslaught from revolutionists and buc- 
caneers. Here and there you find a vine-clad ruin, the 
remains of some building that has burned or decayed, and 
other structures which look so decrepit that you stand by 
awhile to see them fall. All the houses are built on the 
Spanish plan, around patios in which are fountains and flower- 
ing plants. The streets are narrow and paved with cobble- 
stones, and in most of them the grass is growing in the 
crevices. Electric lights illuminate the principal streets and 
plazas, and a curious street-car line runs only after dark, 
going from the harbor to the railway station. No cars are 
running in the daytime. The explanation of this phenonenon 
is that the traffic is not sufficient to justify a separate power 
house, so the trolley cars get their electricity from the com- 
pany that lights the streets and operates its dynamos only 
between dusk and dawn. 

The harbor of Panama ranks with those of Rio de Janeiro, 
Sydney, San Francisco and Naples, and furnishes a beautiful 
panorama of irregular verdant hills, with huge green-clad 
mountains in the distance. It is fifty miles across the bay, 
and scattered here and there are odd-shaped islands and gaunt 
rocks that protrude from the water. Upon one of these 
islands Balboa fitted out his expedition for the conquest of 
Peru. It will be remembered that the material for the con- 
struction of four brigantines was cut on the Atlantic side and 



26 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

transported across the isthmus by thirty negro slaves and a 
great number of Indians, who were impressed for the service. 
They toiled like ants over the mountains with their ponderous 
burdens under the scorching rays of the sun. Many perished 
because the task was too great for their strength. On the 
summit of the mountains a resting place was provided where 
the burden-bearers refreshed themselves and renewed their 
vigor. It is difficult to understand this chapter in history, for 
the southern side of the isthmus, and particularly the islands 
of the bay, abound in splendid timber, which might have been 
taken without difficulty, at least as easily as that on the 
northern coast. 

It was on one of these islands, too, that Francisco Pizarro, 
Diego Almagro and Ferdinand de Luque organized an expedi- 
tion a few years later which was more successful. De Luque 
was a priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and, unlike most 
men of his trade, was very rich. Pizarro was a swineherd in 
Spain, and, becoming tired of tending hogs, enlisted for a 
soldier and embarked with other troops for the first colony 
at Darien, where his boldness and natural ability soon made 
him a leader. Almagro was a foundling of similar charac- 
teristics and history but was not so cunning or so bold as 
Pizarro. In some manner or another these two adventurers 
persuaded De Luque to put up the money to fit out an expedi- 
tion for Peru, which Balboa had attempted some years before. 
They had received reports of its riches through the Indians 
from time to time, and were eager to make the attack. 

Upon the same island where the Peruvian expedition was 
fitted out the Pacific Mail Steamship Company has repair shops 
and a shipyard, and just west of it is La Boca, the new 
terminus of the Panama railroad, where ships will soon be 
able to go up to the docks. On Flamenco Island there is a 
cemetery, with a big white marble monument marking the 
burial place of several officers and sailors of the United States 
man-of-war Jamestown, who died here of yellow fever shortly 
after the civil war. Another island, and the largest in the 
bay, called Taboga, is a summer resort where rich Panama 
people have country residences and spend a portion of the 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 27 

year. It is reached by a little steamer that runs in and out 
every day. The bathing is good, the temperature is much 
lower than in the city, and large springs are said to furnish 
the best water in South America. 

There are 100 other islands, large and small. Some are 
inhabited by fishermen and others shelter only birds of 
brilliant plumage, reptiles and other creeping things. The 
anchorage of the steamship companies is not far from the 
southern entrance to the Panama canal, where a channel 
thirty-two feet deep is to be dredged for four miles through 
the coral bottom of the bay. Here a fleet of old hulks lies at 
anchor, most of them being used for the storage of coal 
brought all the way from England, the United States and 
Australia in sailing vessels to supply merchant ships and men 
of war. The nearest coal mines are in Chile, but their product 
is soft and does not possess the steaming qualities of the Brit- 
ish and American coal. Recent discoveries of anthracite in 
northern Peru may result in a solution of the fuel problem, 
but at present it is cheaper to bring coal from Cardiff or 
Baltimore in sailing ships around the Horn. 

Some of the old hulks are mere skeletons. Time and 
thieves have treated them badly and torn the skin from their 
rusty ribs. Among them is the old Trujillo, an ancient paddle 
steamer that sailed up and down this coast fifty years ago, and 
the Ayacucho, the first propeller ever seen on the west coast 
of South America. She was considered a wonder of elegance 
and speed and still retains her lines of beauty. 

At one time she was commanded by "Yankee" Hall, for 
many years commodore of the Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company, who was the original of the second mate on the 
Pilgrim in Richard Henry Dana's story, "Two Years Before 
the Mast." When last heard from he was still living at 
Jamaica Plains and drove about old friends who visited him 
from Panama in an ancient gig, with an anchor at the end of 
a strap, to fasten his horse. 

"Yankee" Hall came down here some time in the 40's with 
a little side-wheeler called the Favorite, which he ran in com- 
petition with the Pacific Navigation Company, and gave them 



28 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

so much trouble that they bought him out and placed him in 
command of their best ship. The present commodore of their 
fleet is Captain Hooker, his son-in-law. 

The pioneer of steam navigation on the west coast of South 
America was William Wheelwright, an enterprising American 
who built the first railroad in the Argentine Republic and the 
first in Chile. The former connected Buenos Ayres with 
Rosario and the latter extended from Copiapo to Caldera. 

Mr. Wheelwright conceived the plan of establishing a line 
of steamers on the coast and went to New York for capital. 
He failed to interest moneyed men in that city, but was more 
successful in London, where he organized the Pacific Steam 
Navigation Company, which ever since has been sending 
steamers with great profit between Liverpool and Panama. 
A monument has been erected in his honor at Santiago. 

There is only one vessel showing the United States flag on 
the West Coast these days, and that is the Relay, a repair 
steamer of the cable company, a graceful craft painted white 
and well fitted for the climate and the duty it has to perform. 

One of the islands in Panama bay used to belong to an 
enterprising old lady from Connecticut — the widow of a sea 
captain — and she lived all alone there in a little cabin for 
several years after her husband died. In the course of time — 
that is, about ten years ago — the Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company desired that particular island for warehouses and 
repair shops, and when it came to make the purchase the 
ancient Yankee dame drove a very hard bargain. She made 
it a condition of the sale that the company should give her a 
life pass upon its steamers between Panama and Valparaiso 
for herself and a maid, to be used at her pleasure. This was 
done without misgivings. The manager of the company 
thought it was only right to give the old lady a sea voyage 
now and then, but experience caused him to think differently, 
for as soon as she had conveyed the title to the property, and 
received a card signed by the president and general manager 
granting her passage at all times on their line, she calmly 
moved aboard their best steamer, selected a stateroom, and 
cruised up and down the coast for several months. At Guay- 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 29 

aquil, Callao, Valparaiso and other of the large ports she 
would go ashore while the ship was loading and unloading, 
but she always left most of her traps in the stateroom and 
came aboard again before the sailing date. When she got 
tired of one steamer she would try another, and was not con- 
tented with getting her living free of cost, but attempted 
actually to make a profit out of the arrangement. 

The old lady had never enjoyed the luxury of a maid in her 
life before she entered into this contract with the steamship 
company, but on several occasions brought a woman aboard 
whom she introduced as such, and demanded that she be 
allowed free passage. The company's officers discovered that 
she was collecting fare from these women— that is, scalping 
her pass — and declined to carry any more of them. The old 
lady made a terrible fuss about it, and threatened to sue the 
company for violating its agreement, but a lawyer she con- 
sulted advised her not to prosecute the case, and she reluc- 
tantly abandoned it. She continued to live aboard the Pacific 
steamers until her death. 

With its ancient walls and fortifications, its tall buildings 
of gloomy gray and roofs of red tile, Panama has an oriental 
appearance as viewed from the harbor, and the shapely archi- 
tecture of the twin spires of the cathedral adds much to the 
beauty of the scene. The fortifications are feeble and crum- 
bling, but are picturesque. The sea walls which have resisted 
the incessant surf for more than two centuries, are covered 
with barnacles and moss. The cafes, which overlook the 
water, seem cool and comfortable from the bay, but are filled 
with an all-pervading smell which the nostrils of a newcomer 
resent, but the acclimated foreigners and natives have long 
ago ceased to perceive. 

At present the passengers and freight that come and go 
must be carried in lighters between the steamers, three miles 
out, and a long landing pier, which extends into the bay from 
the Panama railroad station, but when the government permits 
the Company to use the new port, La Boca, at the mouth of 
the canal, all this trouble will be avoided. The tide averages 
twenty-five feet, but diminishes as you go up and down the 



3 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

coast. At the Bay of Fundy the tide rises seventy-one feet, 
but there are few other places where it is so great as at 
Panama. 

A considerable part of the expense of transporting 
freight to and from the west coast of Central and South 
America is due to the difficulty of loading and unloading here. 
The packages are taken from the cars to a long pier, hoisted 
into large iron lighters, towed out to the steamers, and hoisted 
into the holds of the ships. This is, however, a great improve- 
ment over the arrangements that formerly existed, when most 
of the freight was transported back and forth in sailboats and 
wooden launches. 

The harbor fleet of the railroad company for several years 
was in command of an old-fashioned "shellback" sailor from 
the State of Maine, by the name of Rountree. He was a man 
without nerves, conscience or sense of fear, and had no respect 
for anything but force. Had he lived ioo years before his 
time he would have been a famous pirate, and was altogether 
an odd and interesting character, of whose eccentricities many 
.stories are told. 

Rountree used to knock the negro roustabouts around with- 
out mercy, and killed one too many, — -a colored man promi- 
nent in the church and several secret societies, whose friends 
followed up the case and obtained a warrant for the captain's 
arrest. The latter had never been arrested and swore he 
never would be, so he got out the hose on his tug, and when 
the police came down with a posse he turned on the hot water 
and scalded them. They fled in a panic. Expecting them to 
come back with re-enforcements, the captain cast off his lines 
and steamed out into the harbor, where he dropped anchor, 
and remained for a week or more, while the governor and 
military authorities remonstrated with the railway men. 
Finally Colonel Burt, the superintendent, agreed to persuade 
Rountree to surrender, with the understanding that he should 
be banished and not imprisoned. So the captain came ashore 
and took the next steamer north. He went to Nicaragua, 
where he worked for the canal company a year or two, and 
then drifted back to the isthmus. He could not stay away. 



THE ANCIENT CITY OP PANAMA 31 

When the friends of the murdered negro learned of his 
arrival they appealed to the authorities, and, having violated 
his parole, Rountree was arrested, thrown into prison, and a 
few days later was made boss of the chain gang that cleans 
the streets. Panama was a clean city as long as he was in 
charge. He was allowed to come and go without interference, 
and only went to the jail when he couldn't get a bed or a meal 
elsewhere. Most of his time was spent sitting around the 
barroom and balconies of the Grand Central hotel. 

By and by, as the time for his trial approached, the author- 
ities tried to get rid of their troublesome prisoner. He was 
an American citizen, and the murdered man was a British 
subject from Jamaica, which threatened international compli- 
cations, and it was decided that Rountree must escape. At 
first he refused to do so, but finally consented, and then, to 
the horror of the authorities, insisted upon going around and 
bidding everybody good-by. He loafed around the Washing- 
ton hotel at Colon for a week or two before he sailed, and 
when he did go every foreigner in Colon was on the dock 
to see him off. As soon as the ship was out of sight the 
governor issued a proclamation declaring him a fugitive from 
justice and offering a reward of 250 pesos for his capture, 
dead or alive. He took great risks thereby, because if old 
Rountree had ever seen the poster he would have come back 
to the isthmus to claim the reward. He got a job at the 
Brooklyn navy yard and died there several years ago. 

Howard Paterson, of the school of navigation in New York, 
has immortalized this eccentric sailor in a story called "The 
Captain of the Rajah." 

The weather is not so hot in Panama as it often is at Wash- 
ington, and sometimes in New York and Chicago. At noon 
the thermometer showed 82 degrees on the balcony of the 
Grand Central hotel, in Panama, and at bedtime that night it 
stood at 78. The houses are built for hot weather, so that 
the same degree of heat is not so severely felt in this latitude. 
The rooms have high ceilings, wide windows and thick shut- 
ters to keep out the sun. There is no glass in the windows. 
I doubt if there is a pane of glass in Panama. The floors are 



32 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

of tiles, tmcarpeted, with rugs here and there. On the shady 
side of the street you don't notice the heat and on the sunny 
side you carry an umbrella. 

It would be quite comfortable in Panama if it were not for 
the yellow fever and if people would stop telling stories that 
make you miserable. They have a habit in all of these 
countries of entertaining visitors with the experience of 
tenderfeet who have suffered horrors. It is the same way in 
the mines and on the ranches in the western states. Out 
there they call it "stampeding." There is no particular name 
for the nuisance in this country, and those who tell you these 
wretched yarns intend to be friendly and do you a favor, but 
many a nervous person has been frightened into the fever by 
listening to the narrations of those who have survived epi- 
demics. The chief officer of the steamer which brought us to 
Colon, is a first-class "stampeder. " He has a large fund of 
yellow-fever stories ; has been sailing in the tropics for twenty 
years; has made a special study of the disease and knows all 
about it; has had hundreds of friends die horrible deaths, and 
most of them have caught it at long range — "A hundred and 
fifty yards to the le'ward" is just about right. He never 
knew a friend of his to miss a microbe, and declares that 
carriage drives about a city are particularly conducive to germ 
gathering. Or, if you want a dead-sure thing on the yellow 
fever, it is only necessary to go to the plaza and sit awhile 
under the shade of the palm trees. That diversion, he says, 
is particularly fatal to Americans. 

I suppose well men and women have taken yellow fever, 
but very few of them. When a man is in good condition 
physically, and takes care of himself, is careful in eating and 
drinking, and avoids exposure to dampness and the sun, it 
takes a good many microbes to throw him down, and most of 
the victims to climatic diseases are punished for their own 
imprudence. 

The bay at Panama used to be a great place for sharks, but 
we lay four days at anchor off Taboga, while the steamer 
Palena of the Chilean line was being loaded and unloaded, and 
didn't see but one. He was "a little chap," and the purser 



<r> 



^ 
£ 



5> 




THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 33 

caught him with a big iron hook that the engineer made. It 
was baited with salt pork, and the shark snapped it greedily, 
but he was a young fellow and didn't know any better, and 
measured only nine feet long. 

"Taboga Ben," who had been the terror of these waters for 
fifty years, and was personally known to every skipper that 
sails this coast, is dead. Captain Leadbetter, who tows freight 
barges with the little steamer Bolivar, got a harpoon into his 
spine about a year ago. "Ben" struck out at a tremendous 
pace when the iron pierced his vertebrae, and must have 
suffered intense agony, for he left a stream of blood upon the 
surface of the water. Leadbetter rung the engine bell and 
ordered on all steam in pursuit, so that the cable shouldn't 
part. The little Bolivar never went through the water so fast 
as she did that day. She chased "Taboga Ben" all over the 
harbor of Panama. Finally, exhausted by pain and the loss 
of blood, and weakened by the torrent of bullets that were 
plugged into his head whenever he raised it to the surface, 
"Ben" gave up the struggle, rolled over, and died. 

He was such a famous character, and the public was so 
much excited by the affair, that Leadbetter towed him to the 
Panama railroad pier, hoisted him out of the water, and laid 
him out on two platform cars. He weighed 7,000 pounds and 
measured forty-six feet from the nub of his nose to the tip 
of his tail. 

For several days the monster was on exhibition near the 
railway station, and everybody in town had a good look at 
him. Then, as he began to show signs of maturity, they 
hauled him up into the • country and dumped him into a ditch, 
which proved to be a mistake, for during the next three or 
four weeks people could smell him all over the isthmus. The 
residents of that region had to abandon their homes, and all 
the windows of the cars had to be tightly closed as the trains 
on the railroad passed the place. 

There are several other celebrated sharks along the coast. 
"San Jose Joe," who haunted the coast of Guatemala, was 
as big as "Ben," and equally notorious. He, too, escaped 
conspiracies for his assassination for many years, but inadver- 



34 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

tently took a dose of dynamite. An officer on one of the 
American men-of-war concealed a large piece of that powerful 
explosive in a slab of salt pork, sewed it up carefully and 
threw it overboard while the vessel lay at anchor off San Jose. 

"Joe" had been hanging around for several days, picking 
up choice morsels that were discarded from the galley, and 
swallowed the pill. The explosion was terrific, and the 
horizon was obscured by a shower of shark meat for several 
seconds after "Joe" brought his jaws down on that pork. 

The magnificent pearls that ornament the crown of Spain, 
and those that are so much admired by tourists who visit the 
cathedrals at Seville, and Toledo, were found in oyster shells 
in the bay of Panama, and the large strings and clusters which 
the Spaniards took from the Indians both on the north and 
west coasts of South America, came from the same source. 
Pearl fishing is still carried on to a considerable extent at 
Panama. In the spring of 1899 a boy 15 years old found an 
oyster that concealed a jewel that was offered for sale in Paris 
for $10,000. He received $4,000 for it from a negro specula- 
tor named Justiana. The latter took it to Panama and sold it 
to Felix Erhman, the banker, for a considerable advance on 
that price. At the Erhman banking house I saw an assort- 
ment of pearls valued all the way from $50 to $4,000, which 
are Panama prices, and considerably lower than those that 
would be asked for the same jewels in London, Paris or New 
York. 

Pearl oysters are found in all parts of Panama bay. Two 
years ago an ordinary fisherman found one near Taboga 
island, not more than half a mile from the regular steamship 
anchorage, that contained a pearl worth $2,400, but the richest 
beds are about thirty miles from the city. The oysters are 
much larger than those found in northern waters, and the 
shells are even larger still. The oysters are rank and coppery, 
but are healthful and are eaten by the natives. The smaller 
ones are often brought to the Panama market. 

The Pearl Islands, as they are called, compose an archi- 
pelago of sixteen islands and several large rocks, with between 
thirty and forty little villages of negroes and mixed Indians, 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 35 

a population of perhaps 1,000 all told, engaged in diving. The 
islands are low and heavily timbered, and the soil is fertile. 
The cocoanut groves and long stretches of white beach that 
glisten like silver in the sun make a pretty picture. Most of 
the islands belong to Panama capitalists, who cultivate the 
soil, as well as manage the fisheries. The largest, called Rey, 
which has about one-half the population, is fifteen miles long 
and seven broad. San Miguel — St. Michael — the chief town, 
and headquarters of the "pearlers," is a cluster of palm- 
thatched huts, several stores built of wood and corrugated 
iron, and a church of stone, larger and more costly than all 
the rest of the buildings of the town combined. 

The population, mostly colored, are descended from the 
slaves that were originally employed by the Spaniards in pearl 
fishing. Since freedom came in 1824 the descendants of the 
old villagers have carried on the business under different 
regulations. The divers, like the gold miners, who were also 
slaves, were formerly kept in pens like the diamond diggers 
of Brazil and South Africa. Perhaps that was the reason why 
convicts and slaves only were used for this work. It must 
have been difficult to induce independent citizens, however 
humble, to submit to such treatment ; but even then, with all 
the precautions that were exercised, the finest pearls were 
smuggled out from the island. 

The pearl is an excrescence, a deformity, a mute protest of 
a helpless animal against an uncomfortable condition it cannot 
control or escape. It is created by the accidental or inten- 
tional intrusion of some foreign substance into the shell of the 
oyster or mussel, which irritates the animal and thus increases 
the flow of saliva or nacre, which crystallizes around the 
offensive article. The art of cultivating pearls has been 
known to scientists for many years, and has become a recog- 
nized industry in Wisconsin, in several parts of Europe, in 
China and Japan. 

The shell is opened with a small instrument of mother of 
pearl, the mantel of the animal is gently lifted, and a particle 
of sand, a pebble, or other foreign matter is placed carefully 
beneath it. The mollusks are then deposited in the water at 



36 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

a depth of from two to five feet, where they are fed with cer- 
tain vegetation, which is supposed to increase the secretions. 

The French bore a hole through the shell of the oyster or 
the mollusk and insert a particle of glass, around which the 
saliva will adhere. 

The only pearls found in the Atlantic ocean are on the 
north coast of South America, near Baranquilla, Colombia, 
and the Marguerita Islands, off the coast of Venezuela, which 
were discovered by Columbus, but their pearls are of a poor 
quality. Pearls are found almost everywhere in the Pacific, 
on the coast of Mexico and Central America, as far south as 
Guayaquil, in the Hawaiian, Samoan, Caroline, Ladrone and 
Polynesian Islands, on the coast of Australia, and the finest 
come from the Indian Ocean, near Ceylon. The abundance 
and the quality of the pearls produced depends upon the 
character of the water in which the mollusk lives and the food 
it consumes. 

In the bay of Panama the pearl divers who work with 
diving bells are required to pay a license fee of $350 a year 
and are allowed to work wherever and as long as they like. 
Each diver usually goes down twice a day, and remains under 
the water from half to three-quarters of an hour each time. 
He tears the oysters off the rocks and puts them in a wire 
basket which is hauled up by a windlass to the deck of the 
schooner where they are opened under the surveillance of 
inspectors. Each basket will contain forty or fifty oysters, 
and is usually filled five or six times while the diver is down. 
These divers are furnished licenses, diving bells, and other 
apparatus by the pearl merchants of Panama and are paid 
regular wages, but almost every negro on the island in the 
Bay of Panama is a pearl fisher on his own hook, and when- 
ever he cares to do so he dives naked at low tide and brings 
up two or three oysters in his hands. This is difficult work, 
for the oysters are fastened to the rocks and it takes a good 
deal of strength to wrench them off. 

Pearl diving is a great gamble. A negro diver may often 
go down a hundred times without getting a single pearl, and 
his only reward is the shell, which is worth from thirteen to 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 37 

fourteeen cents a pound. Mr. Piza, the largest dealer in 
Panama, told me that his boat took 100 tons of shell one 
season without finding a single pearl, and then daily for four 
or five days in succession secured two or three of the finest 
pearls he had ever seen. 

The pearl fisheries in the Bay of Panama pay about 
$500,000 in pearls and $250,000 in shells per year. The shells 
are sent to New York, Paris and Antwerp, where they are 
used for making buttons, knife handles, ornaments and for all 
sorts of purposes. The pearls go to Paris, where they are 
distributed to other markets. Very few are sent to New York 
or to other ports of the United States because of the high 
duty. There is, however, more or less smuggling, as a pearl 
can be concealed from a custom house officer about as easily 
as any merchandise that can be imported. 

Pearls are increasing in value for two reasons — the growing 
scarcity and the growing demand. Forty people can afford 
to buy pearls to-day where one was able to do so twenty years 
ago. A fine pearl commands any price the owner may ask for 
it, although pearls are not considered a safe, permanent 
investment, like diamonds, because they are perishable and 
decay with time. None of the celebrated pearls of to-day are 
old, and heirlooms that have been kept for several genera- 
tions gradually lose their luster and their value. 

The most beautiful pearl in existence is in the crown of 
one of the former Czars of Russia and is on exhibition in the 
Kremlin at Moscow. It is a perfect sphere, and so pure as to 
appear almost transparent. It weighs ninety grains. The 
next finest in the world is known as the Hope pearl and is 
owned by an English nobleman. There is a remarkable pearl 
in the crown of an image of the Virgin at Saragossa, Spain, 
and another of equal value in a cross in the cathedral at 
Seville, which is said to have been brought from America by 
one of the early conquistadores. 

A few years ago an American traveler purchased for 100 
marks an antique gold brooch that he found in a bric-a-brac 
shop in a small town in the interior of Germany. In the 
center of the setting was a spherical jewel that was supposed 



38 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

to be hematite, a species of iron ore, but when the brooch was 
brought to the United States and sent to Tiffany's to be 
cleaned the piece of iron turned out to be one of the most 
beautiful gems ever exposed to view. It was a black pearl 
valued at $12,000. An attempt was made to trace the owner- 
ship of the brooch, but it could only be learned that the pawn- 
broker had received it from a stranger some years before as 
security for a small loan and that the owner apparently had 
no knowledge of its value. 

The romantic story of Cleopatra's pearls dissolved in wine 
was invented by one who was not familiar with their composi- 
tion. Pearls cannot be dissolved in wine or vinegar, but they 
can be eaten by certain powerful acids, which would have 
burned the beautiful throat of Cleopatra so that she would 
have died instantly. 

The enormous amount of gold found among the Indians by 
the conquistadores, the rich product of the mines in the 
Spanish colonial period, the successful raids of the pirates and 
the buccaneers that used to haunt these coasts, have naturally 
given rise to many tales of buried treasures, and one of them 
involves the Cocos Island, a small "spot" of ground belonging 
to Costa Rica, in latitude 5 degrees and 32 minutes and longi- 
tude 87 degrees and 2 minutes, about 400 miles southwest of 
Panama. 

The story goes that in 182 1, during the revolution which 
separated the colonies from Spain, the wealthy Spaniards of 
Central America, fearing that their houses would be looted 
and their savings seized by the natives in rebellion, loaded a 
schooner with gold and gems and silver plate and sent it, in 
charge of a committee, to Cocos Island, to be buried until the 
troubles were over. Each of the committee of six men had a 
chart of its location. One was killed during the revolution. 
Two died from natural causes before it was over. When 
peace was restored the other three started for Cocos to bring 
back the wealth, but were never heard from again. Their 
boat is supposed to have been driven on the rocks of the island 
and all on board perished. This was about 1830. 

No further attempt was made for several years to obtain 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF PANAMA 39 

the treasure, but then the heirs of the dead and the other 
owners of the property began to stir things up and organize 
expeditions for its recovery. Several parties went over with 
gangs of men to do the digging, but never brought anything 
home. Alleged copies of the chart were made and sold to 
speculators after the secret had become generally known, and 
through the hands of sailors found their way to all parts of 
the world. Clandestine syndicates of treasure-hunters were 
formed and expeditions were sent secretly from New York, 
San Francisco and London, as well as from Panama and Cen- 
tral America. There has been a good deal of fighting and a 
good deal of fever, for, although the island is an attractive 
place, it is as unhealthy as the Garden of Hesperides. The 
Angel of Death seems to guard the buried treasure of Cocos 
Island as the dragon guarded the golden apples there. 

Cocos arises abruptly from the sea, with broken walls of 
rock that are almost perpendicular. There is occasionally a 
ravine, down which a stream of water rushes, or a strip of 
sandy beach, against which the surf breaks with great vio- 
lence. The entire surface is covered with luxuriant vegeta- 
tion, great spreading trees, strange plants and vines and 
beautiful foliage, which furnish a remarkable field for botan- 
ical research. There are many large streams also, and several 
small lakes, 300 or 400 yards across, deep reservoirs of pure, 
cold water bubbling up from the center of the earth. It is said 
to be the finest water in the Pacific. 

According to these tales, Cocos Island must be an ideal 
place for a Robinson Crusoe. It has abundant fish and water 
fowls, turtles are plentiful and crabs of prodigious size, and 
the woods are full of wild pigs and goats that were abandoned 
by the early inhabitants and have multiplied. The great 
objection is the moisture. The island lies in what the sailors 
call the doldroms, a strip of sea a few degrees north of the 
equator, between the east and the west trade winds. In that 
region there is seldom any breeze, and sailing vessels always 
avoid it for fear of getting becalmed. The rainy season 
extends the year around, and the precipitation is so large as to 
be almost incredible. 



4 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

In 1898, the Imperieuse, flagship of the British squadron 
of the north Pacific, with Rear- Admiral Palliser in command, 
came all the way from Vancouver to Cocos, under orders from 
London to investigate the claims of one Charles Hartford, an 
Englishman who had a concession from the government of 
Costa Rica to search for the treasure on commission, and had 
interested a capitalist by the name of E. A. Harris to become 
his "angel" and furnish him with funds. At the time of this 
visit the only inhabitants of Cocos were a German family 
named Gerster, the remnants of a colony of Germans who had 
come from Costa Rica, but abandoned the place after a few 
months' residence because of the unhealthy climate. They 
did considerable prospecting and found traces of lead and 
quicksilver, but no gold or treasure. 

Two or three hundred sailors from the Imperieuse were 
sent ashore with picks and spades, and dug trenches in par- 
allel lines six feet apart and ten feet deep at the place 
indicated by a chart which Hartford brought with him, but 
they found nothing. He showed them also a tunnel or 
cavern in the rocks, which they blew up with dynamite, with- 
out a sign of the $30,000,000 of silver plate and jewels and 
gold. It rained torrents all the time, and digging was not 
only difficult, but dangerous, as there were several landslides. 
Hartford was left at San Jose de Guatemala, where he endea- 
vored to persuade the captain of the United States steamer 
Alert to go down and continue the work, but the Imperieuse 
returned to Vancouver with nothing but a story. 

Hartford found his way to Panama and remained there 
for several weeks. He loafed around the American consulate, 
lamenting his bad luck and telling people what he intended 
to do with the treasure if he ever found it. Stories of buried 
gold among the ruins of old Panama, which was destroyed by 
Morgan, the English pirate, 200 years ago, excited Hartford, 
and, hiring a negro laborer, he spent several weeks examining 
the crumbling walls and slimy cellars of the ancient city. He 
returned to Panama for another short period in May, 1899, and 
then went with his negro assistant into the mountains of the 
Isthmus of Darien in pursuit of another "will o' the wisp " 



THE ANCIENT CITY OP PANAMA 41 

During the latter part of August the negro returned to 
Panama alone and told inquirers that Hartford had died of 
fever in the mountains, but no one took enough interest in the 
subject to report the matter to the consul-general. Suspicion 
was excited because of contradictory statements made by the 
negro, and some of the American residents decided to make 
an investigation, but the negro suddenly disappeared and has 
not been heard from since. 

Hartford came originally from Connecticut, but said very 
little about himself and never received any letters, so that his 
mysterious disappearance could only be communicated to the 
state department as a matter of record for the interest of 
whom it may concern. 



IV 
CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 

The voyage from Panama down the west coast of South 
America — or rather, up the west coast, as the sailors sa)', just 
as we say "down in Maine," in defiance of geography — is one 
of the most charming that salt water affords. You're always 
sure of fine weather, fine ships and a smooth sea. It never 
rains, it never blows, and the swell is not heavy enough to 
make ordinary people seasick. From the morning after leav- 
ing Panama until Valparaiso is reached the ships follow the 
shore, and the passengers are often in sight of the Andes, 
whose feet are buried in dense verdure, whose breasts are 
wrapped in foamy clouds and whose peaks are crowned with 
spotless snow, which sparkles forever and ever under the 
tropic sun. The spectacle of Chimborazo, rising like a king 
among an army of Titans, is unsurpassed by any mountain 
view on earth, unless it be the peak of Teneriff, approached 
from the westward. Chimborazo has nearly twice the alti- 
tude — more than 22,000 feet — and until Mount Everest in the 
Himilayas was measured, was mentioned in the geographies 
as the highest peak on the globe ; but it is eighty miles from 
the sea, and can only be seen in very clear weather, while the 
peak of Teneriff springs directly from the ocean and therefore 
seems more massive and magnificent. 

The weather on the south Pacific is always fair, and the 
heat is tempered by three causes — the antarctic current, the 
trade winds from the ocean, and, when they are lacking, by 
breezes from the eastward, which are cooled to freshness as 
they pass over the mountain snows. From Guayaquil south- 
ward to Coquimbo, including the entire coast of Peru and the 
north half of Chile, a distance of about 2,200 miles, is a rain- 
less region, which is called the Zone Seca by the Spaniards, 

42 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 43 

or "Dry Zone." The trade winds blowing from the east 
leave in the Andes all the moisture they have brought from 
the Atlantic ocean, and when they reach the dry desert plain 
the air is so rarified that they produce a partial vacuum, 
which is filled by a constant stream of air from the ocean, 
which, of course, is much cooler than the plain. This influ- 
ence extends 100 miles off the shore, and thus there is always 
a cool breeze blowing from one direction or the other, either 
over the cold waters of the antarctic current or the snows of 
the Cordilleras. 

The temperature was much cooler after we left Panama 
than it was at any time between New York and Colon. On 
the Caribbean Sea the trade winds followed the ship and we 
got no benefit from them. The air was warm and sultry and 
the nights particularly uncomfortable, although we had deck 
staterooms with a door and two windows open and a transom 
in the roof. The thermometer on shipboard never fell below 
84 degrees after passing Watling's Island, which is in 23 
degrees, 56 minutes, 40 seconds north latitude, about the same 
as Havana. 

We crossed the equator at 6:15 p. m., Sunday, July 2. 
The thermometer stood at 76 degrees in the chartroom on the 
shady side of the ship and at 78 degrees in the companionway 
leading to the dining saloon. A fresh breeze was blowing 
from the southwest, the swell was a little heavier than usual, 
and a few white caps ornamented the surface of the ocean. 
After dinner that evening it was so cool that we pulled our 
chairs to the leeward of the cabin, the ladies put on light 
wraps, and about 10 o'clock, when I retired, the mercury 
stood at 72 degrees. 

On the Fourth of July, where we lay in quarantine in the 
Guayas River, thirty-five miles below Guayaquil and three 
degrees south of the equator, it was doubtless cooler than in 
either Chicago or New York. At 8 a. m. the thermometer 
marked 74 degrees in the companionway, at noon it was 76 
degrees, and at 4 p. m., it was 81 degrees. On July 5 it was 
78 degrees when we went ashore to the city of Guayaquil at 8 
o'clock in the morning. It was 84 degrees at 10:30 in the 



44 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

American consulate and 81 degrees at the club where we 
lunched at noon. That evening, about 10 o'clock, the ther- 
mometer stood at 67 degrees in the chartroom of the steamer. 

Similar temperature is found all along the coast south of 
the Bay of Panama, and, as I have said, is chiefly due to the 
Antarctic current discovered by Baron von Humboldt in 1808. 
It is a cold stream that comes up around Cape Horn from the 
frozen zone of the south to cool the atmosphere of the west 
coast, just as the gulf stream brings the warm water of the 
tropics to moderate the climate of Europe and North Amer- 
ica, for you know that if it were not for the gulf stream every- 
body in England would be living like Esquimos, and potatoes 
would never grow in Ireland. 

The Humboldt current splits near Cape St. Lorenzo, Ecua- 
dor, which is the westernmost point of the southern continent. 
One part flows westward to the Galapagos islands. The other 
follows the coast north to Central America, where it meets 
the Mexican current coming from the northward and forms a 
whirlpool which mariners avoid. Thus has a beneficent 
Providence made life endurable in the tropics. On the east 
coast of South America the thermometer will average twenty 
degrees higher in the same latitude than on the west coast, 
and in the matter of health there is even greater difference. 

The ships built for this latitude and smooth sailing are 
considerably different from those one usually finds on salt 
water, the decks being open almost to the water's edge, and 
the staterooms opening on them instead of on the saloons and 
passageways. The doors are blinds, with wide slats; the 
windows are nearly half as large as those of an ordinary 
residence, so that the rooms are cool even in the warmest 
weather. On some of the steamers hammocks are swung 
under the canvas awnings on the upper deck and passengers 
can sleep in them if they choose to, although strangers are 
cautioned against it until they become acclimated. For a 
lazy man there is no more agreeable occupation than to lie in 
a hammock on a south Pacific steamer and wonder why so 
many people like to work. 

The days and nights are of equal length. The sun knocks 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 45 

off work promptly at six o'clock in the evening. There is no 
twilight, no gloaming, no interval whatever between day- 
light and dark — only a brilliant illumination, the sudden 
disappearance of a red ball into a blue ocean, a spread of 
flame color over all the western sky for a few minutes and a 
purple haze in the east. 

Then the surface of the ocean, like the heavens, is lighted 
with millions of strange and shifting stars, for the water is so 
impregnated with phosphorus that each tiny wave is tipped 
with light, and the foam that follows in the wake of the vessel 
is often like a stream of fire. Sometimes you can see por- 
poises swimming along the bow of the vessel livid with phos- 
phorescent light and followed by a streak of sparks like a 
comet's tail. The southern cross, with the right arm tipped 
out of the proper angle, lies straight ahead, in the midst of 
myriads of unknown worlds that look strange to those accus- 
tomed to the northern constellations. Under the left arm is 
a large black spot in the heavens, brightened by only one 
modest star. The sailors call it the "devil's dinner bag." 
Over the scern of the vessel in the early evening you can 
plainly distinguish the familiar constellation of the "great 
bear, ' ' but it goes to bed with the children. 

There is a system of "deck traders" on this coast that I 
believe is practiced nowhere else in the world. When a vessel 
leaves Valparaiso or Panama, the termini of the voyage, it 
carries half a dozen itinerant merchants, who spend their 
lives aboard carrying on a retail business in fruits, vegetables, 
dry goods, notions, crockery, jewelry and other necessaries 
and luxuries of life of unlimited variety, from needles and pins 
to parrots, monkeys, singing birds and gamecocks, and on our 
ship one of them actually carried a donkey to be sold on com- 
mission. 

There was a good-natured old woman of capacious embon- 
point on board the Palena, who has made every voyage with 
our captain for eleven years. She has the choice corner on 
the lower deck, and when approaching a port spreads out her 
wares in a most attractive manner and sits in the midst of 
them in a big rocking chair, swaying a palm-leaf fan and 



46 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

carrying on her bargains and gossip at the same time. At 
night time and between ports she puts her goods away in 
chests, boxes, bags and barrels, unfolds a wire woven cot, 
unrolls a mattress, spreads a pair of clean sheets and a soft 
pillow with edging on the slip, and, in the midst of her mer- 
chandise, lies down to pleasant dreams. 

The Guayas is a mighty river, one of the largest in South 
America, and drains an enormous area on the western slope 
of the Cordilleras. Guayaquil is thirty-five miles from its 
mouth. There are ninety-one rivers in Ecuador, composing 
two great systems, one flowing eastward into the Amazon and 
the other westward into the Guayas. The eastern slope, or 
Amazon section, is completely covered with vast forests. The 
western section contains the inhabited portion of the country 
and is cultivated along the coast. In the mountains, the 
earth, like the air, is dry, and irrigation is necessary to pro- 
duce ordinary crops, but this portion of the country is so 
sparsely settled that a very few acres serves to supply the 
wants of the people, and most of the land is given up to 
pasturage. 

It is said that every crop that grows can be produced some- 
where in Ecuador, and it is probably true, for the two great 
ranges of the Andes, sloping on the one side to the sea and on 
the other to the jungles of the Amazon, furnish almost any 
climate and degree of moisture or aridness and every variety 
of soil. The foothills and the mountains are filled with 
valleys, canyons, gorges and plateaus, while between the two 
ranges, which are from forty to sixty miles apart and run 
nearly parallel to each other, and the Pacific coast there is a 
great basin, from 7,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea, which is 
almost denuded of timber, but is capable of sustaining a large 
population. Indeed, it was densely settled before the Span- 
iards came, but their cruelty almost exterminated the aborig- 
inal inhabitants. 

Nowhere on earth, except in Bolivia, can be found such an 
assemblage of mountains. Along the eastern chain are found 
eleven peaks above 15,000 feet in height, with Chimborazo as 
their chief, whose peak is nearly 22,000 feet above the sea. 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 47 

There are seventeen other peaks ranging from 10,000 to 
14,800 feet high. Ten of them are active volcanoes, and have 
covered a large area around them with ashes, lava and pumice 
stone. The volcanic ashes, however, have rare fertilizing 
qualities and are soon covered with vegetation wherever there 
is moisture. 

On either side of the Guayas River is a dense growth of 
tropical vegetation, steaming under a vertical sun — the very 
hothouse of nature, where plants and trees spring up almost 
in a night to wage a desperate war for existence and where 
every monarch of the forest is attacked by tons of vines, 
mosses, orchids and other parasites until his trunk and 
branches are covered and the exhausted giant is often borne 
to earth under their weight. Back of these forests, on the 
foothills on either side of the river, is a vast area of fine 
pasturage, which gradually rises until the Andes are reached. 
The snow line in Ecuador is higher than at any other place 
on earth, because it lies directly upon the equator and the 
rays of the sun fall perpendicularly at all seasons. Mount St. 
Bernard, the highest point of permanent human habitation in 
Europe, is only 8,377 feet above the level of the sea, while the 
Tamdo de Antisana, one of the highest towns in Ecuador, lies 
at an elevation of 13,360 feet. 

The Isla del Muerto, or Dead Man's Island, which lies 
in the Bay of Guayaquil, bears a striking resemblance to a 
corpse floating on its back. The head, the neck, the breast, 
the swollen stomach, the legs and turned-up toes appear 
even more lifelike than the "white woman" that lies upon 
the summit of the volcano Issatazhuatl, near the City of 
Mexico. 

The Guayas River has a peculiar way of splitting into two 
parts a few miles below the city of Guayaquil, in order to 
admit the incoming tide. It is a broad, swift, turbid stream, 
resembling the lower Mississippi. The channel is from thirty 
to forty feet deep, but on either side the water is quite shal- 
low, and there is usually a current of about seven miles an 
hour. It is a curious fact that when the tide comes up from 
the ocean, as it does twice a day, it is not met with resistance, 



48 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

but the river, with true Spanish politeness, gives it the middle 
of the road, so to speak, and retires to both sides of the 
channel. Thus may be seen the phenomena of three streams, 
one flowing up in the center at the rate of about four knots an 
hour, and the others flowing down on either side at the rate of 
seven knots. One is salt, two are fresh. One has a deep 
green color; the other two are a muddy brown, and the divid- 
ing lines are further marked by a fringe of froth, floating 
weeds, driftwood and other debris, which seems bewildered, 
or perhaps indifferent, and stands still, without joining either 
stream or flowing in either direction, until the tide turns and 
all the waters commingle and go down together to the sea. 

The Guayas is a great place for alligators, and the natives 
have a curious way of killing them for their hides. They take 
to the water naked, with the exception of big straw hats on 
their heads, with the brims a yard wide, and long knives in 
their teeth. They swim along among the 'gators, and when 
one of the reptiles opens his jaws and goes for him the swim- 
mer dives, leaving his hat on the surface for the alligator to 
chew on, and plunges the knife into the monster's vitals. 

In tropical South America there is always a choice of cli- 
mates, — three zones they are called, — varying in temperature 
from perpetual summer to eternal winter. Along the coast is 
the first zone, or the tierra caliente (hot earth), where the 
temperature seldom goes below 85 in the shade, and usually 
lingers in the neighborhood of 100. This is the land of the 
banana, the pineapple, the sugar cane, the palm and the 
orchid. The next zone is the tierra templada, comprising 
table lands and foothills from three thousand to seven thou- 
sand feet in altitude, where the climate is a perpetual spring, 
where it is June from January to December, and where coffee, 
as well as all the fruits, vegetables and cereals of the temper- 
ate latitude are grown. Then, farther up the Andes is the 
tierra fria (cold earth), on the edges of which the cattle 
browse; but beyond them the snow lies always, even under 
the equatorial sun. 

The principal cities and most of the settlements are on the 
coast, because of the difficulties of transportation ; and in the 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 49 

interior beyond the mountains, lies an empire unmeasured and 
unexplored, watered by the mightiest of rivers, shaded by 
forests whose limits are unknown, and abounding in all the 
resources that man has found in other parts of the globe. , The 
branches of the great river Amazon intersect those of the 
Orinoco, and a man in a canoe may enter the mouth of one 
and, sailing through the interlocking streams, emerge from 
the mouth of the other without leaving the water. From the 
sources of the Parana, that great natural thoroughfare of the 
southern half of the continent, it is but a trifling distance to 
the head of navigation on the Amazon. Within the embrace 
of these great streams are supposed to lie the richest mineral 
deposits in the universe, and there the ancient voyageurs 
located the mythical city Manoah, the El Dorado of which the 
world dreamed for centuries, and which invoked more ambi- 
tion and more avarice than anything man has known. 

There is good reason to believe the government of Ecua- 
dor will permit the United States to establish a naval station 
on one of the Galapagos Islands, providing we will pay the 
price. Ecuador has scruples against selling its territory, but 
would be willing to lease, provided the other American repub- 
lics would not object. Therefore, if satisfactory terms can be 
arranged a naval supply and coaling station will sometime be 
established on San Cristobal, or Chatham Island, as it is 
named upon the English maps, the fourth in area of the 
sixteen islands that compose the archipelago. 

Chatham Island is owned by a naturalized American citizen 
named Manuel J. Cobos, who has a plantation there called the 
Hacienda del Progresso. He has already signified his willing- 
ness to convey to the United States all the land and water 
rights, timber and other building material and everything else 
in his possession that may be needed for the naval station 
without compensation, but the government of Ecuador, which 
exercises sovereignty over the archipelago, will expect to be 
paid a liberal sum, either in a lump, or in annual installments. 

Captain Tanner, of the navy, who made a thorough survey 
of the islands in 1891, when the subject of a lease or purchase 
was under consideration by the Harrison administration, 



50 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

reports that Chatham is the most desirable in every respect of 
all the islands, having plenty of water, timber and other 
facilities, a healthy climate, a fertile soil and good harbors. 
Senor Cobos is the only resident of the island. He has a fairly 
good house and owns a group of cabins that are occupied by 
his employes. 

The Galapagos islands are of volcanic origin, being moun- 
tainous, with prominent peaks, fertile foothills and numerous 
extinct craters. Chatham is covered with trees and other 
vegetation, and the foliage is always fresh and green. 

The location of the islands not only makes them desirable 
as a naval station, but the certainty of the construction of a 
canal across the isthmus at some time or another under the 
auspices of the United States makes their strategic importance 
of first consideration. From Chatham Island it is 620 miles to 
Guayaquil, 840 to Panama, 1,010 miles to Callao, 2,190 miles 
to Valparaiso, 2,430 miles to Lota, Chile, where the coal mines 
are, 2,990 miles to San Francisco, 4,200 miles to Honolulu, 
5,699 miles to Pago Pago, where we have our naval station in 
the Samoan Islands, 5,900 miles to Auckland, 7,100 miles to 
Sydney, 7,800 miles to Manilla, and 2,831 miles to New York, 
by way of the Nicaragua Canal. 

The government of the United States has time and again 
been guilty of great folly, and if the Fillmore administration 
had been possessed of ordinary foresight and patriotism we 
would have owned one of the Galapagos Islands now. In 1850 
William Hollister, of Buffalo, being en route to California, met 
at Panama Gen. Jose Villimil, and was persuaded to join in a 
revolutionary movement in Ecuador, which proved successful, 
and Villimil became president of that republic. At the end of 
his term he came to Washington as the minister of Ecuador, 
and through Hollister offered the United States the island of 
St. Charles as a supply station for our ships in the Pacific. The 
secretary of the navy promised to send the sloop St. Marys, 
which was then cruising in the Pacific, to make a survey and 
report and take possession of the territory, but in some man- 
ner the matter was overlooked and forgotten. There is no 
record in the files of the State Department or the navy of any 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 51 

formal reply to the Villimil proposition, which was probably 
due to a change of administration shortly after, in 1853. 

And away back during the War of 181 2, we came very near 
taking the islands by "expansion." Then they still belonged 
to Spain. In those days there was a great deal of whaling in 
the South Pacific, and the whalers from Dundee being much 
more numerous and more powerfully armed with cannon, and 
commissioned with letters of marque and reprisal, drove the 
Nantucket and New Bedford whalers out of that part of the 
ocean. To protect those that were left and administer proper 
punishment, Commodore Porter went around the Horn in the 
frigate Essex and sailed for the Galapagos Islands, which was 
the rendezvous of the British whaling fleet. On Chatham 
Island he captured a dry water cask that was used by the 
Britishers as a postoffice, and overhauling the letters it con- 
tained he got a good idea of the movements of the fleet. 
Hence, within the next three or four months he captured or 
destroyed every British whaler on that part of the sea and 
took prizes valued at more than $5,000,000. There were so 
many prizes to take charge of that the only officers left on the 
Essex were the commodore and the surgeon's mate. Every 
officer on the frigate was detailed for the command of a prize, 
even the doctor and the chaplain, the paymaster and the cap- 
tain of marines, including Mr. Midshipman Farragut, who was 
then only 12 years old, but who proved himself quite capable 
of commanding a whaler of 400 tons. 

With all this fleet around him, Porter, who was only a cap- 
tain, broke out the pennant of a commodore and took posses- 
sion of the Galapagos Islands under the flag of the United 
States. Unfortunately, however, he could not spare the men 
for a garrison, and when he sailed away the only thing he 
could do to hold his title was to leave the stars and stripes 
floating jj;om a flagpole on Chatham Island. 

Whe; Commodore Porter got home, instead of being hailed 
as a her- >, he was court-martialed for disobedience of orders, 
and for having exceeded his authority. He was found guilty 
and sentenced to suspension for six months, which made him 
so indignant that he resigned his commission and went to 



52 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Mexico, where he organized a navy for that young republic 
soon after its independence. He was the father of the late 
Admiral Porter. 

The future prosperity and material development of Ecua- 
dor depend upon the construction of a railway from Guayaquil 
to Quito and other points in the interior. This has been 
realized by the leading men of the country for many years, 
and each president has attempted with more or less energy, to 
carry out the scheme. Garcia Moreno, who was the greatest 
man Ecuador has produced, and who was dictator there from 
1 86 1 to 1875, laid the first rail in this country and completed a 
track about sixty miles long from the head of navigation on 
the Guayas River to the foot of the mountains, where the 
mule trail to Quito begins, but he got no farther, and under 
his successors the road became overgrown with the rank 
vegetation of the jungles and was practically abandoned. 
Camaano cleared away the brush, bought a couple of new 
engines and repaired the track and it has since been operated 
for the government by an American manager. Alfaro deter- 
mined to complete the road to Quito, and one of his first acts 
when he assumed power was to enter into a contract with Mr. 
Archer Harmon for the construction of the road on account of 
the government, from a place called Duran, on the east bank 
of the Guayas River opposite Guayaquil, to Quito, a distance 
of, perhaps, 350 miles. The contract was approved by con- 
gress, and Mr. Harmon, of Virginia, organized a syndicate in 
New York and London to supply the capital, made a survey, 
organized a corps of engineers and a construction company, 
and commenced work in June, 1899. 

Mr. Harmon is to receive $12,282,000 in first mortgage 6 
per cent bonds, interest and principal secured by a lien upon 
the customs revenues of the republic, with a sinking fund 
sufficient to redeem them in thirty-three years. He is also to 
receive $5,250,000 of preferred stock, with 7 per cent interest 
guaranteed, and 5 1 per cent of the common stock. In other 
words he is to receive $17,532,000 in stock and bonds guaran- 
teed by the government of Ecuador for the construction of the 
road, and also a title to the sixty miles of track which is now 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 53 

in operation between Duran and Chimbo, but which will have 
to be rebuilt, as the roadbed is poor, new ties and rails are 
badly needed and the gauge must be changed to forty inches 
according to the contract for the extension. 

The railroad cannot be built with local labor. There are 
probably 600,000 Indian peons in the country. Not one of 
them owns an inch of real estate, and most of them are more 
or less in a state of slavery under the planters or haciendados 
upon whose estates their families have lived for centuries. 
They are short, broad and muscular, with skins of copper- 
color, resembling that of the North American Indians, long, 
straight, shiny hair and scanty beard, or none at all. They 
resemble the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and the Aztecs 
of Mexico. Their predominant characteristic is melancholy. 
They are reticent and extremely distrustful and look upon all 
strangers with suspicion. The Indian of the interior is so 
suspicious that he will sell nothing at wholesale, nor will he 
trade anywhere but in the market place on the spot where 
his forefathers have sold garden truck for three centuries. 
Although travelers upon the highways meet numerous Indians 
on their way to market bearing heavy burdens of vegetables, 
forage and other supplies, and driving droves of donkeys 
similarly laden, nothing can induce an Indian to sell anything 
from his stock until he has reached the place where he is 
accustomed to offer it for sale. He will carry his load ten 
miles and dispose of it for less than he was offered at a point 
half that distance, simply because he is a slave to custom and 
is suspicious of everything in the way of an innovation. 

A gentleman who lives in one of the towns of the interior 
told me once that he had been trying for years to persuade the 
Indians who passed his house every morning with packs of 
alfalfa to sell him a supply regularly at his gate, but they 
refused to do so. Consequently he was compelled to go four 
miles into town to buy alfalfa that was carried past his own 
door, but the seller willingly carried it back and delivered it, 
thus packing his load eight useless miles because it had been 
the habit of his family to do so. 

My friend also told me that no woman in the market would 



54 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

sell more than a dozen eggs to one customer, not even if she 
were offered double the price. She would give him one dozen 
eggs for 10 cents, but would not sell five dozen for $i ; she 
would give a gourd full of potatoes for a penny, but would not 
give five gourdfuls for 10 cents or 20 cents or any other price, 
simply because she was not accustomed to sell potatoes in such 
quantities and any attempt to induce her to depart from cus- 
tom excited the suspicion which is the predominating trait of 
her race. Four centuries of Spanish tyranny, duplicity and 
deception have destroyed the faith of the entire race in white 
people, but when their confidence is once gained nothing can 
shake it. The devotion between the peons and their masters 
is often similar to that which existed between the negro slaves 
in the south and the members of the kindly families in which 
they had been reared. 

It is easy to see that such labor would be very intractable 
in a railway construction gang, even if it could be obtained. 
It would be difficult, also, if not impossible, to induce the 
Indians to use modern implements. They are accustomed to 
their own primitive methods of labor and their own rude tools, 
and will not use anything else. 

The first section of the road, as I have said, is now in oper- 
ation from Duran, a little town across the river from Guaya- 
quil, across a low alluvial and swampy region which lies 
between the Andes and the ocean, and is partially reclaimed 
and planted to sugar cane, coffee, rice and other crops. 
Chimbo, the eastern terminus of the road, lies at an elevation 
of 1,130 feet at the foot of the western range of the Andes, 
which run parallel with the Pacific coast. The second section, 
from Chimbo to Sibambe, runs for sixty miles through the 
forest slope of the mountain to an altitude of 8,136 feet, and 
is the most difficult and expensive in construction. The 
country is very rough and rocky, the rise is rapid and the 
track will have to be cut out of the hillside. 

The remainder of the road, from Sibambe to Quito, 230 
miles, will run through what is known as the inter-Andine 
plateau, which lies between the two great ranges of mountains 
known as the Andes and the Cordilleras. In Ecuador these 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 55 

parallels are connected by eight transverse ranges, nearly 
equidistant from each other, which arise like buttresses to 
support the main chains, and have been compared to the 
rounds of a gigantic ladder. In the parlance of the country 
they are known as "nudos," or knots. These ridges rise to 
an elevation of from 10,000 to 15,000 feet, but can usually be 
crossed through passes 9,000 or 10,000 feet above the sea. 
The basins between them have a mean elevation of 8,000 feet 
and abound in every crop that the world knows. 

There are to be no engineering difficulties in this section 
of the projected railroad, and a considerable portion of the 
route is already graded and prepared for the rails in the "Via 
Real" of the Incas, one of the most magnificent pieces of 
highway construction that was ever carried out, built several 
hundred years before the coming of the Spaniards and yet 
in good condition, notwithstanding the lack of repairs. 

In this part of the country is found the largest portion of 
the population and the greatest area of cultivated soil in 
Ecuador, which, however, has been inaccessible to markets 
except by rough and uncertain mule paths. The landowners 
are very little in advance of the peons. They are indifferent 
to modern methods and machinery in the cultivation of their 
estates ; they prefer the primitive methods that were practiced 
by their forefathers ; they hold their labor in a state of peon- 
age; they know nothing of the outside world; very few of 
them have ever been a day's journey away from the spot upon 
which they were born, and the entire community have 
advanced but little during the last 200 years. 

This is the class of people and this is the character of the 
country which President Alfaro desires to reach with the "obra 
redentora, " or "redeeming work," as they call it, of the rail- 
way. This is not, however, a new enterprise, as I have said. 
It has been attempted again and again by previous presidents, 
but this time the promoters seem to be in earnest and have 
the money to carry out their plans. 

It is asserted that cacao is the most profitable crop that 
grows, that is, provided the locality, the climate and other 
conditions are favorable. It requires a low, moist, rich soil, 



J 



56 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the bottom lands of a river preferred, a copious rainfall, a 
high temperature and a hot sun. The average cost of produc- 
tion under such conditions is about $3.50 per quintal and the 
market price is $1 2 gold per quintal. It is much better than 
coffee or wheat, corn or cotton, because the price does not 
fluctuate and the demand is always greater than the supply. 
There are drawbacks, of course. A drought will affect the 
yield of the trees considerably and sometimes destroy the 
entire crop. Birds and monkeys and various parasites attack 
the trees so that continual vigilance is necessary to protect 
them, but the expense is small, and a good crop can usually 
be depended upon. 

Ecuador produces nearly one-third of the entire cacao used 
in the world. The total is estimated at 75,000 tons. The 
average crop in Ecuador is 22,000 tons. Trinidad and the 
other British West Indies send an average of 19,000 tons to 
market, 7,500 tons comes from Brazil, 6,000 tons from Ven- 
ezuela, 4,500 tons from Dutch Guiana, 4,000 tons from Haiti, 
3,000 from Colombia, 8,000 from Africa, 2,500 tons from the 
East Indies, and smaller amounts are grown in Mexico and 
the countries of Central America, but little more than is 
required for home consumption. 

Cacao is a native of Mexico and was grown in large quan- 
tities by the Aztecs at the time of the conquest. They called 
it "chocolatl." The Spaniards called it "cascara quahuitl." 
The history of Ecuador does not tell when the plant was 
introduced there, but the soil and climate were recognized as 
very favorable and as long ago as 1741 the statistics record an 
annual production of 3,000,000 pounds. There are now about 
45,000,000 trees in the country. These are planted in rows 
four or five yards apart and are usually grown from the seed. 
The tree reaches a height of twenty or thirty feet, the trunk 
attains a thickness of eight or ten inches and the blossom is a 
small, pink, waxlike flower It grows directly out of the bark 
of the trunk and branches, and not at the end of twigs, like 
other fruits. When it fructifies the petals fall off, and the 
stamens in the course of two months develop into an oblong 
pod or melon with dark golden rind, about eight or ten inches 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 57 

long, and filled with beans about the size and shape of an 
almond. These are imbedded in a gummy pulp and are 
removed by the use of a rude implement made from the rib of 
a steer. When the pods are ripe they are cut from the tree 
by pruning knives attached to the ends of long poles. The 
pods are opened, the seeds are extracted and spread upon a 
floor of cement or split bamboo for three or four days under 
the hot sun. Then they are put in sacks and shipped to 
Guayaquil, where the cacao is cleaned of splinters, dirt and 
defective beans, assorted according to quality and again 
exposed to the sun before being packed in sacks for shipment 
to the United States and Europe. 

France is the greatest consumer, taking about 16,000 or 
17,000 tons a year. Germany comes next and often surpasses 
France. England uses ten or twelve tons annually and the 
United States 15,000 or 16,000 tons. 

Cacao is the basis of several important medicines, the 
active principle agent being theobroma, a powerful organic 
reagent. Under chemical analysis the cacao bean shows forty- 
nine parts fat, nineteen parts albumen and twelve parts starch. 
The largest amount is consumed in the manufacturing of con- 
fectionery and other forms of food. The shells of the seed are 
roasted and sold as a substitute for tea and coffee. The oil 
extracted from the seeds is the basis of tonics, pomades and 
butter which has remarkable curative properties. The pulp 
of the pod is a favorite fodder for animals. 

Although the production of cacao in Ecuador is already 
considerable, the area under cultivation is insignificant com- 
pared with that available, and a large field for enterprise is 
offered there which the natives are slow to utilize, chiefly 
because of the lack of capital and energy. There is a gradual 
increase in the produt of late years and the industry will con- 
tinue to grow because it is so profitable. The largest planta- 
tions are owned by wealthy Ecuadorians, who find it to their 
pleasure to reside in Paris and receive their profits through 
the administrators they leave in charge of their estates. 

A first-class hacienda is worth about $150,000 in Ecuado- 
rian silver, which is about $75,000 gold, which includes all the 



58 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCpAN 

improvements, appurtenances, implements, and other assets 
belonging to the plantation, including the money advanced to 
the peon laborers, all of which generally amounts to about 20 
per cent of the total value, leaving about 80 per cent as the 
cost of the trees. It is much cheaper, however, to buy wild 
lands and plant new orchards. Large tracts can be obtained 
from the government for $1 (gold) an acre or thereabouts, or 
from private individuals anywhere from $4 to $15 an acre, but 
the title to private lands often are defective and purchasers 
should be extremely careful in having them examined. The 
laws affecting the transfer and inheritance of real property are 
so complex and confusing that Solomon himself would find it 
difficult to administer them. A title direct from the govern- 
ment is not only clear and indisputable, but the government 
lands are quite as good as any that can be found in private 
hands. 

In starting a new plantation the common practice is to 
make a contract with a "sembrador," a man of experience in 
the business, who will agree to clear the land and bring an 
orchard to a state of bearing with a fixed number of trees at 
the rate of from 20 to 30 cents a tree. The proprietor fur- 
nishes the land and advances money to the "sembrador" from 
time to time until the trees begin to bear fruit, when he pays 
the final installment and takes the property in charge. 

The "sembrador" first clears the ground of underbrush, 
leaving the large trees and the wild cacao trees, which are 
frequent in all the forests having been propagated by seed 
which monkeys and birds have scattered. The wild trees are 
not so prolific, but improve with cultivation. 

While the plants are young the space between them is 
planted with corn, arrowroot and bananas, with the double 
object of protecting the delicate shoots from the sun and 
securing an immediate income from these crops. The cacao 
plant begins to bear when five or six years old. It reaches 
maturity in the tenth year and continues to bear for several 
generations. The first few years the trees are pruned occa- 
sionally in order that they may "run to fruit" rather than to 
foliage, but no fertilizer is used except leaves and other vege- 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 59 

table matter found in the vicinity, and the only attention 
necessary is to keep the orchard clear of weeds and the trees 
free from parasites. 

The average yield is about one pound of beans per tree, 
but that may be increased considerably by cultivation and 
careful pruning. No scientific farming has ever been done in 
Ecuador. The most primitive methods are in use. There 
has been no change for two centuries, and there is no telling 
what the application of intelligence and botanical science to 
the cultivation of cacao might result in. A hacienda of 
100,000 trees will therefore produce 1,000 quintals of beans at 
a low estimate, making a liberal allowance for failures and 
accidents. At the present market price this would be worth 
$22,500. The cost of the crop, according to the present prim- 
itive methods, would be about $7,500, including taxes and 
transportation to Guayaquil, leaving a profit of $15,000, which 
experts tell me is far below the average income of plantations 
containing 100,000 trees, which are valued in the mortgage 
banks at $75,000 gold when in good condition. 

The banks of Guayaquil are accustomed to make advances 
to the planters ; in fact, the most of the latter live ahead of 
their incomes, as the cotton kings of the south used to do 
before the war, and pay 10 and 12 percent interest. Mort- 
gage loans are made for twenty-one years at 9 or 10 per cent, 
at the rate of 50 cents for each tree in bearing. 

Native Indians are generally employed upon the planta- 
tions, and paid from 50 to 80 cents a day in silver, which is 
equivalent to about half as much in our money. They are 
brought from the mountains by employment agents when 
needed, under contracts which are as bad and usually worse 
than slavery. There are no laws for the protection of the 
poor. All the statutes are in the interest of the rich. The 
contracts are registered in the police courts, and no laborer 
can leave an employer without the latter's consent, or as long 
as he owes him money. Therefore the first step in the rela- 
tion of employer and employed is for the latter to overdraw 
his wages at the plantation supply store, which he is always 
eager to do if permitted. Then he becomes a slave for life, 



60 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

for, unless the employer wants to get rid of him, the debt is 
never canceled. It may amount to only a few dollars, but it 
is the cause of servitude all the same. If the peon runs away 
the planter reports the fact to the police, who recapture him, 
and the expense of the pursuit and prosecution is charged 
against him, and fastens his shackles all the firmer. If he 
wants to change his residence he must get somebody to buy 
him by paying his debts. If his employer wants to get rid of 
him he sells him for the amount of his indebtedness to some 
other planter, without consulting him or his welfare. 

In this way a system of peonage has come about that is the 
curse of the country. A peon is not worth half as much as a 
mule, and therefore is not so well treated. He is often 
abused and ill fed, compelled to live in unhealthy surround- 
ings and under the most degraded conditions, with even less 
care and comfort than his forefathers enjoyed during the days 
of legalized slavery. The natural consequence is a rapid 
decadence of the race, both morally and physically, for in his 
desperate state the peon can have no self-respect, no ambition 
and no purpose, except to forget his misery in drink and other 
vices that not only undermine his constitution, but are trans- 
mitted to his children, who grow up among similar conditions 
to enter the employment of his master as soon as they are old 
enough to be useful. 

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. There are 
some haciendas on which the laborers are treated with patri- 
archal kindness and to which they are devotedly attached. 
The same families have lived there for generations and feel a 
proprietary interest in the plantations, but peons are seldom 
educated, they seldom advance beyond the conditions in which 
they were born and there is no future for them or their 
children. 

Until 1899 the educational system of Ecuador was under 
the control of the priests, and the parochial schools offered a 
meager opportunity for the children of the poor who live in 
the cities and villages, to obtain the rudiments of learning. 
They were taught to read and write and the simple rules of 
arithmetic, but the attendance was comparatively limited. 



CRUISING ALONG THE WEST COAST 61 

Not one child out of ten in the country attended even these 
schools, and outside of the towns there were no facilities what- 
ever. Therefore about 75 per cent of the population of Ecua- 
dor is illiterate. 

Suppose 10,000 youngsters were taken annually from the 
mud huts of the cacao plantations and trained to be good 
citizens. In fifteen or twenty years the laboring classes of 
Ecuador would be entirely regenerated and there would be 
some hope for this country. The children are very bright. 
They have quick perception and retentive memories, but when 
they become 2 1 years of age they seem to lose their wits and 
are transformed into stupid, stolid, stubborn creatures with a 
limited degree of intelligence, and incapable of being trained 
to anything but the roughest sort of labor. This transforma- 
tion is explained by biologists on the theory of arrested 
development — that the mind becomes dwarfed for lack of 
exercise, just as a limb might be. Men who have suffered 
solitary confinement have lost the power of speech, and the 
peons of Ecuador, having had their mental faculties developed 
to a certain degree in childhood, become dull, because their 
reasoning powers and perceptions are no longer employed. 



V 

THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 

From the deck of a steamer in the evening Guayaquil looks 
like a little Paris. It lies along the bank of the river, and the 
main street, called El Malecon, stretches for two miles or 
more, from a shipyard to a fortress-crowned hill, El Cerro, 
where there is a gloomy-looking fort with two decrepit old 
guns, which are supposed to protect the shipping in the har- 
bor. The Malecon appears to be lined with long blocks of 
beautiful marble and stone, and in the evening every window 
is brilliantly illuminated. The imagination of the stranger 
can find plenty of material to build romances. Here appears 
a row of palaces, then a group of clubs, and beyond a series of 
blazing ballrooms. Some people recognize a resemblance to 
Algiers and Constantinople in the water front, or the little 
cities that hug the beautiful bays of Italy. Consul de Leon 
says it looks like New Orleans, and there is a resemblance to 
the levees that lie along the river, where the freight is piled 
up in little mountains waiting to be stowed away aboard the 
steamers. 

In the morning from shipboard the illusion is not dispelled, 
but the view is quite as imposing. The architecture is pure 
and graceful ; much of it is of the Moorish order, the rest is on 
more delicate lines. The long portales, or arcades, that front 
the river, are like the shops on the Rue de Rivoli, in Paris, 
and above them are balconies sheltered by blinds and awnings 
of gay canvas, which have an oriental look, and occasionally 
you catch a glimpse of a group of gentlemen or ladies seated 
before the windows looking out upon the long street which is 
at once the principal retail shopping place, the favorite prom- 
enade and the docks where lighters are loaded with cargoes 
for the steamers anchored in the river. 

62 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 63 

Along this street is a little railway on which tiny cars, 
drawn by a diminutive locomotive, bring from and take to the 
various warehouses heavy loads of merchandise, cocoa, sugar 
and other freight, which is piled upon the docks according to 
a classification under the direction of the customs officers, 
who collect an export as well as an import duty upon every- 
thing that comes and goes. In the center is a custom house 
built of corrugated iron from Pittsburg, with the gay flag of 
Ecuador, whose broad stripes of yellow, blue and red float 
from a pole that rises from the little cupola. 

At the southern end of this long street is a busy market, 
where hundreds of curious boats and broad-bosomed rafts 
loaded with vegetables, fruits and other produce from the 
upper river and its tributaries moor every morning at early 
dawn and sell their cargoes to the grocers and hucksters and 
other patrons. Still farther down is a shipyard where gangs 
of men are busy building small boats. Occasionally a curious 
little steamboat, that looks like a turtle, comes puffing and 
snorting along with a load of passengers and freight and uses 
a screeching whistle to proclaim its superiority of speed and 
size over the humble dugouts and balsas. 

Behind this picturesque scene rise the artistic walls of the 
houses and the slender spires of a dozen churches, each 
crowned with a gilded cross, and the city creeps up the 
ru gg e( l hills that form a background to the picture. Between 
two of them, in what they call La Silla, is a cream-colored 
hospital, the largest and most conspicuous object in the land- 
scape. 

But when you go ashore you find that you have been the 
victim of an optical illusion. The imposing edifices of marble 
are simply shells of plastered bamboo, trimmed with orna- 
ments of stucco and painted in artistic designs. The elastic 
houses are constructed with a view of defying earthquakes and 
admitting the greatest amount of air consistent with privacy, 
and the architects have succeeded to a remarkable degree. 
Every design has a purpose, and the chief end of man is to 
secure the highest degree of comfort and luxury in an abom- 
inable climate. 



6 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

There has been a remarkable improvement in Guayaquil 
since I first visited this city, fourteen years ago. This is due 
chiefly to a big fire and a progressive president. In October, 
1896, about two-thirds of the town was entirely destroyed, at 
least three-fourths of the inhabitants were rendered tempo- 
rarily homeless, and many lost everything they possessed. 
The greatest destruction occurred in the older part of the 
place, where some of the blocks had been standing for 200 
years and were in an advanced stage of dilapidation and 
decay. There had been fires before — in 1707, 1764, 1830, and 
1841 — but none was so destructive, and it was only a stiff wind 
from the south that saved the west of Guayaquil in 1896. 

The city has also suffered severely from volcanic eruptions 
and earthquakes, being almost entirely destroyed in 1587, 
1660, and 1797. The last serious earthquake occurred in 
1859. These were genuine tierra-motors, or "world-shakers," 
when the battalion of volcanoes, which, under the command 
of Chimborazo, guards this coast, got reckless and shook the 
earth with such mighty force that mountains crumbled, can- 
yons yawned, the bowels of the earth were exposed, rivers 
came tumbling down in torrents where were only dry valleys 
before, and the bluffs that lined the coast tumbled over into 
the sea. These great cataclysms that change the topography 
of the country occur only once in a century or so, but 
"tremblors," a gentler kind of shakeup, and "trembloritos, " 
little earthquakes, are quite common. 

Consul-General de Leon described one that took place in 
May, 1899, when the elastic houses bent and swayed like a 
tent of canvas in a gale, when the walls took a diagonal posi- 
tion and then reversed themselves, the pictures swung like 
pendulums, and tables, bureaus, and chairs, danced about on 
the polished floors. On such occasions everybody rushes into 
the streets to avoid the falling tiles, or stands under the near- 
est doorway to escape the rain of plaster. The houses are 
built especially for such emergencies. The walls are of split 
bamboo, the timbers are joined by bolts of iron, with sufficient 
room to play in, and the ceilings are of cotton sheeting, 
stenciled or painted in pretty designs in imitation of fresco. 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 65 

When they build a house in Guayaquil, they first level the 
ground and then lay a low foundation of stone. Upon that 
are laid heavy timbers of lignum vitas, to which the uprights, 
the stringers, and other heavy timbers, are bolted with iron, 
as I have described. Then slender pieces of lighter timber are 
run up and down and covered on the outside and inside with 
strips of split bamboo lashed together with cord or withes into 
slabs one foot or eight inches wide. Sometimes the roof is 
thatched with straw and palms, sometimes it is made of tiles, 
and a great deal of corrugated iron is used. The latter is the 
favorite material for warehouses and similar structures. It is 
the largest article of import into this country and is rolled very 
thin for building purposes. 

Wide balconies are built on the outside of all the houses 
from the ground to the roof and inclosed with blinds. There 
is no glass, there are no chimneys and no fires except for 
cooking. In the kitchens there are few' stoves except among 
foreigners. The natives use an arrangement of masonry like 
a blacksmith's forge and burn charcoal for fuel. The inge- 
nuity and skill of the cooks is so great that they can prepare a 
dinner of six or seven courses for twenty people over one of 
these contrivances without the slightest trouble. The interi- 
ors of the houses are finished in pine, cotton drilling is used 
for ceilings, the floors are tiles or polished wood, and the walls 
are hung with cloth or paper. The outside of the house is 
plastered with cement and then painted in artistic designs and 
fanciful colors, or in imitation of stone or marble. The fire 
was a great blessing, for the entire area that was devastated 
is now rebuilt with substantial and expensive structures, with 
modern improvements, which add greatly to the appearance 
of the city, as well as to the comfort of the people. 

Some of the houses of the wealthy are sumptuously fur- 
nished, but as a rule they contain very little of what northern 
people think necessary. Carpets, upholstered furniture and 
hangings, are dispensed with as much as possible, for they 
shut out the air, retain the heat, and furnish shelter for fleas 
and other insects, which are the bane of existence. The floors 
are polished and bare, or covered with Japanese matting, the 



66 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

furniture is almost entirely cane or rattan, the beds are of 
iron or canvas cots without springs. 

The poor live in unplastered bamboo huts, thatched with 
rushes, and floors of mud. A large part of the population 
live on the water, as they do in Canton, China, having 
houses of bamboo built upon rafts, called "balsas," similar to 
those the Peruvians used when Pizarro came, which are made 
by lashing together logs of the balsam tree or hollow trunks of 
bamboo. The balsam is a species of timber nearly as buoyant 
as cork. A log forty feet long and fifteen inches in diameter 
will carry two tons. Twenty or thirty lashed together will 
therefore sustain a large cargo. In the center of each balsa 
is a hut of bamboo, in which the "marineros," as the owners 
are called, and their families live from youth to age, raise pigs 
and chickens and carry their entire fortunes. The rafts are 
propelled by sails or oars, and are taken from place to place, 
according as business is offered. It is said that from the 
balsas our shipbuilders got the idea of seaboards for yachts. 
The balsam logs are so light that they drift easily, and in 
order to give them purchase to take the wind the natives 
shove strips of bamboo down between the logs three or four 
feet into the water. 

Another interesting kind of craft which are seen not only 
around Guayaquil, but along all the Peruvian coast, are called 
"caballitos," or "little horses." They consist of bundles of 
reeds or rushes lashed together like sheaves of wheat and 
forming a float or raft from ten to twenty feet long and from 
four to six feet wide. The ends taper up like those of a gon- 
dola. They are very light and buoyant and convenient for 
portage. When not in use they are taken out of the water and 
set up on one end to dry. A cabillito will carry two men and 
several packages of freight, and it is customary to lash several 
of them together to carry larger cargoes. They are very 
uncomfortable to ride in, however, as the slightest agitation 
of the water affects them and there is nothing to protect the 
cargoes or passengers. They are used chiefly for fishing and 
for bringing down from the interior to market vegetables, 
fruits and other articles which are not injured by being wet. 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 67 

Revolutions have been frequent in Ecuador, and often 
destructive of life and property. In order to protect them- 
selves foreign residents were formerly in the habit of placing 1 
above the entrances to their houses, or in some other conspicu- 
ous place a facsimile of the flag of their nation, painted on tin 
or wood, with the legend in plain letters, "This is the house 
of an American," or "This is the house of an Englishman," 
or a German or a Frenchman, as the case might be. But you 
see no more of these signs in the new part of Guayaquil, which 
is evidence of improvement in political affairs. 

The cathedral is an imposing structure, when viewed at a 
distance, but when you approach it closely you find that it is 
built entirely of bamboo splints lashed together with wisps of 
vegetable fiber, thinly coated with clay, molded in rococo 
designs and then whitewashed to look like marble. High 
mass is celebrated at 6 o'clock every morning with a large 
parade of priests, with splendid vestments and fine music, but it 
is attended only by the feminine portion of the population. Men 
are seldom seen at church, except on feast days and at funerals. 

One of the first things a stranger notices is the number of 
dark-eyed women with their heads covered and their faces half 
concealed with black "mantas," that he meets on the street 
early in the morning, either coming from or going to church. 
Low mass is celebrated in all the churches as early as 7 o'clock, 
and the women attend to the religion for the entire family. 
You seldom see a man at church, except at a funeral or a 
wedding or on a feast day. There are no pews in the churches, 
and it is common, therefore, to see a maidservant carrying a 
camp stool or a little rug after her mistress, upon which the 
latter sits or kneels during the service. In the churches at 
Quito the floors are marked off like a chess board, and each 
square is numbered. These squares, about two by three feet 
in dimensions, are rented to rich people, and are occupied by 
the ladies of the family when they attend mass, so that at the 
morning service you will see little groups of one or two women 
scattered over the floor, while the poor are fringed about on 
either side against the walls. 

In the cemeteries are great vaults of marble divided into 



68 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

pigeon holes just large enough to receive a coffin. These are 
rented or purchased from the association or church to which 
the burial ground belongs, and when a body is placed in one 
of them the opening is sealed up with a slab of marble, upon 
which an epitaph is inscribed. If the rent is not paid after a 
certain time, the coffin is removed and buried in the back part 
of the cemetery, where the poor lie apart. Some families 
have individual vaults, and several in the cemetery at Guaya- 
quil are beautiful works of marble. 

There used to be a great deal more show of religion here 
in former days than now, for Guayaquil is getting to be very 
"liberal," which means that there is a growing indifference 
to religious observances. In the interior, especially at Quito, 
one sees a great deal of ceremony, and almost every day there 
are religious processions in the streets. 

Some years ago, in Guayaquil, I saw a curious spectacle, 
which was familiar in those days. The priest of one of the 
churches needed money, so he took the image of the Virgin 
and the holy sacrament from the altar and carried them about 
the city under a canopy, clad in his sacerdotal vestments. 
He was preceded by a band and attended by a number of 
acolytes carrying lighted candles and swinging incense urns, 
and was followed by fifty or sixty men, women and children, 
who knelt in the streets in a reverential manner whenever he 
stopped. If the church was not rich enough to hire a band 
two or three men were sent ahead ringing bells to attract 
attention. When the procession stopped in front of a store 
the priests would enter with contribution plates and solicit 
offerings from the proprietors, clerks and customers, while 
the people kneeling outside prayed that their hearts might be 
touched with liberality. Where money was obtained a bless- 
ing was bestowed. These processions are now prohibited in 
Guayaquil. 

Passing along the country roads in the interior travelers 
see rudely painted inscriptions over the entrances to houses 
like this: "La patrona de esta casa es Nuestra Senora de la 
Merced" (the patron of this house is Our Mother of Mercies), 
or "El patron de esta casa es San Juan de Baptista. " 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 6 9 

Everybody has his patron saint, to whom he offers prayers 
and who protects him from evil. Every boy or girl is chris- 
tened after the saint whose anniversary occurs on the day of 
the child's birth. Sometimes very pious people give their 
children the names of several saints, so that they will be well 
looked after. A boy who is born Christmas week is usually 
named after the Savior, and the number of those who are 
called Jesus is very large. But the children never heard of 
Santa Claus and never sang a carol, and never saw a Christ- 
mas tree, for Christmas day is not celebrated in Ecaudor as it 
is with us and in northern Europe. The only difference from 
ordinary days is that the morning mass is attended with a 
little more ceremony than usual. New Year's day and Easter 
are the popular festivals, and carnival week is observed as in 
Rome, only more rudely. On New Year's eve it is cus- 
tomary to have family gatherings, to which intimate friends 
are invited, to watch the old year out and see the new year in, 
with music and dancing, and when the cathedral clock strikes 
twelve everybody embraces everybody else, with affectionate 
words of congratulation and wishes for a "Feliz ano nuevo. " 
Gifts are exchanged among members of the family, intimate 
friends and servants, and cards are sent to people whose 
names are on my lady's visiting list. The carnival lasts three 
days, the lord of misrule is supreme and the roughest kind of 
horseplay is indulged in. From behind the jalousies of the 
best houses the ladies do not hesitate to throw water and flour 
upon passers-by, whether they are friends or strangers. Rank 
and distinction are disregarded, and unless those whose busi- 
ness takes them out of doors walk in the middle of the street 
they are apt to be drenched. 

"Cascarones" (wax balls filled with colored water) are 
thrown into people's faces. Syringes are carried under the 
coats of the men and are used without regard to results. Egg- 
shells are filled with flour instead of confetti, and every con- 
ceivable mixture, including paint, mud and grease. It is 
considered proper to knock off a man's hat and kick it into the 
street ; hence people wear old clothes when they go out during- 
the carnival. 



70 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The saints in whose honor a baby is christened, like god- 
fathers and godmothers, are expected to look after his tem- 
poral as well as his spiritual welfare. I once knew a man 
whose name was Jesus Maria Joseph Saint-John-the-Baptist 
Trinity Velasco. He was a dwarf in stature with a very small 
body, a very large head, and a face that Shakespeare might 
have described for Caliban. He made charcoal in the moun- 
tains and owned a pack of donkeys that brought the product 
of his labor to market. 

He and his sons — there were eight of them, by actual 
count, and three or four girls by way of variety — lived with 
his wife and mother in a little adobe dwelling of two rooms, 
not half so large as ordinary bedrooms, on the mountain side, 
seven thousand feet above the sea. The big boys cut the 
cedar and pine in the forests, and brought the sticks on their 
backs to the furnaces which the old man tended with much 
skill. And the fires were never extinguished ; for while the 
father slept one of the sons looked after them. 

About twice a week the donkeys were loaded with bags of 
charcoal and driven to the city by the yotuiger children, little^ 
urchins from eight to twelve years old. They had to start 'at 
three o'clock in the morning and did not get home again until 
midnight, for the journey was long and the donkey is not a 
rapid traveler. Neither father, nor mother, nor any of the 
children, ever saw the inside of a schoolhouse, and would not 
have recognized their own names had they been written before 
their eyes. They seldom stopped work except upon a feast 
day, but the old man had two thousand silver pesos, about 
$ 1,000 of our money — his savings — hidden somewhere about 
the place. So the saints were good to him. 

If anybody supposes that the inhabitants of Ecuador are 
uncouth, unmannerly and uneducated, however, it is a great 
mistake. There is a wide difference between the peons, the 
Indians, and what are known as the upper classes. The latter 
number only about 15 per cent of the entire population, and 
are quite up to our standard of intelligence; and although 
education is not so universal as in the United States the fam- 
ilies of the upper class are as cultivated as our own. They 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 71 

even surpass the average citizens of North America in social 
graces, in conversational powers and linguistic accomplish- 
ments. They have keener perceptions than we; they are 
more careful of their manners, more observing of the nicer 
proprieties, usually speak fluently one or two languages 
beside their own, and have a cultivated taste for music and 
the arts. No Spanish lady or gentleman is ever embarrassed ; 
they always know how to do and say the proper thing, and 
while in many cases their sympathetic interest in your welfare 
may be only skin deep, and their affectionate phrases insin- 
cere, they are nevertheless the most hospitable of hosts and 
the most charming of companions. 

In commerce, as well as in society, this deportment is 
universal. In their stores and offices they are as polite as in 
their parlors. In the country no laborer ever passes a lady 
without raising his hat. Every gentleman is respectfully 
saluted, whether he is a stranger or an acquaintance, and it is 
pleasing to hear a market woman say, "May the Virgin pros- 
per you," or "May heaven smile upon your errand," or "May 
your patron saint protect you from all harm." She may not 
care a straw whether you ever reach the end of your journey, 
and if you ask her how far it is to the next place she will 
probably tell you a polite falsehood by making the distance 
half as long as it is; but she recognizes an obligation and 
practices the beautiful custom of the country when she says, 
"God be with you," as if she intended it for a blessing. 

The most novel and amusing spectacle in Guayaquil is 
donkeys wearing pantalets. This is not due to motives of 
modesty, such as were attributed to the Boston lady who 
clothed the limbs of her piano in a similar manner, for most 
of the children go naked and many of the peon women 
nearly so. The pantalets, made of cotton cloth and suspended 
by strips of tape over the shoulders and haunches, are a 
humane invention to protect the animals from the vicious flies 
which attack them. 

When the railway to Quito is built Guayaquil will be an 
important market. The people of the interior consume a 
small amount of foreign merchandise at present because there 



72 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

are no means of transportation. Every package and every 
passenger that goes to Quito has to climb over the Andes on 
the back of a mule. It takes a traveler from six to nine days 
to make the journey of 350 miles, according to the condition 
of the roads, and even then he will find it very tiresome and 
have to put up with a great many discomforts. He must carry 
his own bedding and food, for there are no hotels on the way, 
and the only shelter is the meanest kind of tambos, or adobe 
huts, which have thatched roofs, mud floors and not only filthy 
but full of unspeakable vermin. 

Reaching the town of Ambato the traveler has the conven- 
ience of a stagecoach the rest of the way, over a very rough 
road, which is more convenient but more uncomfortable than 
horseback riding. By using relays of horses the coaches keep 
going night and day until the journey ends, and a passenger 
whose flesh and muscles have not been hardened to such expe- 
riences will find himself a mass of pulp upon his arrival at the 
Ecuadorian capital. 

What little freight goes up and down the mountains is 
transported by caravans of mules and donkeys, which can 
carry no package heavier than 100 pounds. The mules can 
carry 200 pounds, but the load must be divided into two parts 
and slung over the saddle on either side. 

There is very little in the interior for export. All the cacao 
is grown on the lowlands along the sea. There are some 
coffee plantations on the foothills of the mountains and a few 
hides and a little corn come out of the great basin, the latter 
being used for fodder at Guayaquil and at other places along 
the coast, The only articles that go into the interior are such 
as the people cannot produce for themselves, drugs and medi- 
cines, paper and stationery, hardware, cotton and woolen 
goods, perfumery, wines and liquors, toys, gloves, etc. Most 
of the clothing, boots and shoes, and other articles for personal 
wear and household use, are made in the country, and they 
are of the rudest sort. The people are poor and produce only 
enough to supply their own wants, chiefly because there is not 
market for a surplus. When the railroad is built — and the 
prospects seem favorable — an enormous area of agricultural 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 73 

and pastoral lands will be opened to settlement and there will 
be some inducement for the farmers to extend their present 
plantations. 

The foreign commerce of Ecuador is limited and varies 
from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 annually, according to the 
volume and value of the cacao crop, which is its principal 
staple. The average will be about $16,000,000 for the last ten 
years. There has usually been a balance of trade against the 
country, which has been settled by money borrowed abroad. 
A considerable part of the foreign trade has been conducted 
on the credit system. Mercantile houses in Guayaquil have 
been "carried" by their creditors in Europe. 

It is difficult to state with any accuracy the amount of 
merchandise imported into the country, because the statistics 
of the custom house, for reasons that need not be explained, 
have been inaccurate and incomplete. The imports, however, 
have averaged $8,000,000 and the exports $7,000,000 in gold. 
The principal article of export is chocolate, or the cacao 
bean from which it is made, and at least one-third of the 
entire crop is sent to France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, 
Germany, England, the United States, Italy, Austria and 
Turkey receiving the balance in the order named. Consider- 
able coffee is raised in the interior, which is absorbed by Chile 
and Peru. The rubber goes to the United States. The cin- 
chona goes to Great Britain, with other dye woods and indigo. 
The hides and goatskins are sent to the United States. The 
tobacco and fruits go to Chile. Germany takes the vegetable 
ivory and considerable sarsaparilla. One of the most impor- 
tant exports is straw hats, which are sent north and south to 
all towns along the west coast, to Cuba and the other islands 
of the West Indies. The province of Manabi produces 
$800,000 worth a year. 

These are the familiar "Panama" hats which were never 
made at Panama, but acquired the name because that city has 
been the chief market for their sale in years past. Guayaquil 
now has that honor. 

The town of Atacames, in northern Ecuador, where a large 
part of these hats come from, was the first place at which 



74 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Pizarro and his army landed en route to the conquest of Peru. 
The inhabitants are a unique race. In 1623 a vessel loaded 
with 700 African slaves was on its way from Panama to the 
mines of Peru, when the negroes mutinied, murdered their 
masters and the officers and sailors of the ship, landed at 
Atacames, took possession of the town, massacred every man 
in the neighborhood, took the women for wives and became 
the founders of an intelligent, industrious and enterprising 
community, which still almost exclusively occupies that 
province. They are called "zombargoes, " and are a mixture 
of pure African and Cayapa Indians, who had reached a high 
stage of civilization before the invasion. The negroes and 
their descendants have minded their own business and kept 
within their own territory. Rumors of their fiendish disposi- 
tion spread up and down the coast, and doubtless served as a 
protection, because the Spaniards and the natives both kept 
away from them, and they were not molested, but engaged in 
mining and agriculture. Their tobacco is particularly good, 
equal to the "vuelta abajo" of Cuba, and, as I have said, the 
women are famous as hatmakers. 

Another place for Panama hats of the finest quality is 
Jijipapa, in the province of Manabi, which takes its name 
from a peculiar grass, of which the softest and silkiest hats 
are made. We never see them in the United States. The 
finest ones are taken by planters along the coast, who are 
willing to pay $80 and $100 for hats so soft and pliable that 
they can be folded up and carried in the pocket. The finest 
hat ever made was sent to the Prince of Wales some years 
ago, and it was so light and delicate that it could be folded 
into a package no larger than his watch. Some of these fine 
hats go to Paris ; others to Italy and Spain. It takes a long 
time and great skill to weave a fine hat, and the work can be 
done only by moonlight. The fibers must not be exposed to 
the daylight, which would dry and harden them and destroy 
the flexibility so essential to their beauty. Nor must they 
be exposed to the light of a lamp or candle, because that 
would endanger them from the insects that are attracted by 
light. It requires the dampness of atmosphere that comes 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 75 

after sunset to soften the fibers. The coarser hats, such as 
you see in the market, are woven under water, the hands of 
the women who weave them, as well as the material, being 
immersed in tubs and buckets. Bridles, halters, cigarette 
cases and other articles are made of the same material. 

Great Britain and France share about equally in the 
imports of Ecuador. Germany's share is about 14 per cent, 
which is increasing more rapidly than that of any other 
nation, at the expense of England and France. The United 
States has about 10 per cent of the import trade. Great Brit- 
ain furnishes cotton goods and other clothing, hardware, 
machinery, tools, cutlery, crockery, drugs and other manufac- 
tured articles. France furnishes silks and other fine classes 
of fabrics, hats and caps, millinery, gloves, hosiery, under- 
clothing, boots and shoes, perfumery, stationery, jewelry, toys, 
fancy articles, furniture, wines and liquors and similar mer- 
chandise. Germany sends articles similar to those imported 
from England. 

The exports from the United States to Ecuador in 1888 
amounted to $813,535. ^ n l8 9 8 tne y amounted to $855,193, 
so, as will be noticed, there was very little change during the 
ten years, although in 1896 the total dropped below $690,000, 
and in 1891 it exceeded $900,000. 

Our imports from Ecuador have stood about the same way. 
In 1889 they amounted to $695,205. In 1898 they were 
$7 6 5>59°- In l8 93 they ran as high as $960,228. In 1897 
they fell as low as $566,526. The imports consist chiefly of 
hides and skins, rubber and cacao. 

The detailed statistics of our exports to Ecuador show an 
almost infinite variety, the largest items being as follows : 

Breadstuffs $122,250 

Lard 142,077 

Timber and lumber 113,648 

Iron and steel 51,696 

Tools 30,911 

Oil petroleum 30,840 

Cotton goods 53,253 

Drugs and medicines „ 32,250 

Cordage .... 15,964 



76 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Preserved fish 6,210 

Furniture 6,443 

Agricultural implements 744 

Railway and street cars 11,650 

Bicycles 2,112 

Jewelry 7,310 

Sewing machines 21,005 

Paper 13.484 

Electrical apparatus 16,927 

Builders' Hardware .' 16,691. 

Machinery 33,868 

Typewriters 1,434 

Locomotives 2,000 

India Rubber goods 3,842 

Printing presses 1,817 

Matches 3,389 

Perfumery 9.329 

Bacon and hams 6, 193 

Butter 3,581 

Soap 1,586 

Whisky 787 

Beer 1,586 

"Wines 5,346 

In addition to the items above given I find in the list 
small invoices of dental supplies, glassware, babbitt metal, 
stove polish, paint, plated ware, photographic materials, soap, 
confectionery, toys, clocks, trunks, gunpowder, boots and 
shoes, firearms, safes, saws, scales, stoves and similar articles. 

There ought to be a much larger trade, particularly with 
California, in lumber, flour, wines, dried and canned fruits 
and similar articles, and there will be a fine opportunity for 
its increase as the British and Chilean Steamship Companies, 
which now send their vessels every two weeks to Guatemala, 
expect to extend the service so far as San Francisco as soon 
as several new vessels, which are now in the stocks in the 
British shipyards, are ready for use. Before that date, how- 
ever, the California people should send drummers down there 
to make the acquaintance of the merchants and introduce their 
goods. 

You seldom see a commercial traveler from the United 
States in these countries. Nearly all the merchandise bought 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 77 

in the United States is ordered through the commission houses 
to which the hides and cacao are sold and the latter articles 
are paid for in that way instead of in cash. For that reason 
our exports and imports run about even every year. But if 
we would increase the trade we have got to go at it as the 
Germans are doing; we have got to cultivate the people and 
show them that it is for their advantage to buy of us instead 
of elsewhere. The Chileans have already eaten into the Cali- 
fornia market for lumber and flour, and are sending up a 
great deal of wine. Formerly we had a monopoly of the flour 
trade on this coast. Now we have only a small fraction of it. 

We are always talking about building up commerce with 
Central and South America and "promoting more friendly 
relations," but all recent legislation has been to prevent the 
very thing our merchants and manufacturers most desire. 
During the Harrison administration we negotiated reciprocity 
treaties with nearly all the other American republics and 
colonies, in which they gave us and we gave them valuable 
concessions, and the effect was only just beginning to be felt 
when a change of administration took place and the demo- 
cratic majority in congress revoked these treaties by a clause 
in the tariff act of 1894. 

We slapped our friends in the face and told them that we 
did not want their trade. We did not observe the ordinary 
formalities used in diplomatic negotiation. We gave them no 
notice, offered no explanation, made no apology, but simply 
revoked the treaties peremptorily, without considering their 
interests or feelings for a moment. Then, three years later, 
came the Dingley tariff law, which contains a bogus reciproc- 
ity clause, intended to humbug the people of both continents. 

I receive many inquiries from young men who want to go 
to South America to engage in business, and ask where they 
will find the largest chances of success. There is no use in 
any man going to a strange country to better his condition 
unless he can speak the language of that country, which, in 
the case of all the other American republics, is Spanish. A 
young man who should go to Venezuela or Ecuador or the 
Argentine Republic in search of employment without being 



78 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

able to speak the Spanish language would be as helpless as a 
Spaniard who came to the United States without being able to 
speak the English language, and even if he had capital and 
desired to make investments on his own account he would be 
entirely at the mercy of his interpreters. 

The ignorance of our merchants and commercial travelers 
on this point is one of the greatest obstacles to an increase of 
trade. In order successfully to compete with salesmen from 
Europe it is necessary for our drummers to meet the cus- 
tomers they are seeking in social as well as in business circles ; 
to entertain and be entertained, and to make themselves as 
agreeable as possible. What sane manufacturer or wholesale 
merchant would send out a drummer in this country that 
could not speak English? Who would send a drummer to 
France who could not speak French and expect him to sell 
goods there? What European would send to this country an 
agent that could not talk our language? Such a thing would 
be considered a waste of time and effort; yet you seldom find 
an American commercial traveler in South America who can 
speak Spanish. I met a dozen or more representing various 
manufacturing and commercial interests, and all but one were 
entirely dependent upon interpreters to translate their conver- 
sation. If they had not been so keen-witted they would not 
have accomplished anything, but they could have sold a hun- 
dred times as many goods if they could have talked to their 
customers directly. 

Now that we have added so much Spanish territory and so 
many Spanish-speaking people to our national domain, we 
ought to teach our children to converse with them in their 
language, as well as their children to converse with us in our 
language. English may be at some time the universal lan- 
guage, but not until every man who is now speaking it is dead 
and gone. Spanish is the easiest of all languages to learn, 
particularly to those who have a knowledge of Latin, and by 
steady application a young man ought to be able to hold an 
ordinary conversation in six months. 

German commercial travelers are able to sell more goods 
in South America than those of any other country because 



THE DECEPTIVE CITY OF GUAYAQUIL 79 

they have a larger stock of patience and understand the char- 
acter of the people with whom they have to deal. When an 
English or an American drummer reaches a town he goes 
around among the retail dealers, greets them cordially, pays a 
few compliments, inquires after their families and mutual 
friends and discusses other subjects of similar interest for a 
few moments. Then he asks if they want any goods in his 
line, and unless they happen to be out of some staple for which 
there is an active demand they reply in the negative. He 
offers to show his samples and invites them to call upon him 
at the hotel or the club where he makes his headquarters. 
Then he goes on to the next shop, where the scene is repeated, 
and he may take several limited orders. 

When a German drummer comes to town he wanders into 
a retail establishment in an indifferent manner, pokes over the 
goods, inquires where they got this and what they paid for 
that, and if there are no customers to be served, he offers the 
merchant a cigar and sits down for a sociable chat, which 
usually ends with an invitation to lunch or dine at the club, 
where he arranges an attractive spread and provides a copious 
supply of good wines, which is returned by an invitation to 
dine at the merchant's house. Not a word is said about busi- 
ness at either place. It is merely a friendly exchange of 
hospitality, which a perfect knowledge of the Spanish lan- 
guage enables the German drummer to make the most of. 
Not only one merchant, but all the tradesmen whose business 
is profitable, are cultivated in this way, and they meet the 
diplomatic drummer in the presence of each other at the club- 
rooms and residences of each other without the slightest 
restraint. 

Sooner or later the curiosity of the merchant impels him 
to ask the drummer's business, and is told that he is selling a 
certain line of goods which are probably of no particular inter- 
est to him. This stimulates curiosity without satisfying it, 
and by his own volition, without any urging or even invitation 
from the drummer, within a few days he is examining the 
samples and giving large orders for goods. Meantime the 
drummer maintains an outward indifference, but puts the 



80 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

merchant under obligations to him by social attentions and 
appropriate presents to the members of his family. They are 
friends and cronies rather than salesman and customers, and 
when the drummer leaves town every merchant of importance 
will accompany him to the steamer and toast his health and 
happiness and his early return with a bottle of champagne. 

In several long journeys in South America I have always 
noticed that when a German commercial traveler comes 
aboard a departing steamer he is invariably accompanied by 
a group of friends, but English and American drummers 
never have any one to see them off except their fellow coun- 
trymen. 



VI 

THE PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OP ECUADOR 

Elroy Afaro is the first * 'liberal" president Ecuador ever 
had. No country has been so devoted to the catholic church 
or has been so thoroughly under the control of the priesthood. 
No government, not even Spain, has been so loyal to the holy 
father. The educated portion of the population outside of 
Guayaquil has been ultramontane to the extreme and sus- 
tained the president and re-elected the congress which declared 
in the constitution that the nation existed "for the glory of 
God and the holy catholic church. ' ' Bills introduced in con- 
gress begin with the phrase: "In the name of God, the 
author and legislator of the earth. ' ' The constitution declares 
that "the religion of the country is the Roman catholic apos- 
tolic. The political powers are bound to respect it and cause 
it to be respected, to protect its liberties and enforce its 
rights." 

When a president is inaugurated he takes an oath on the 
four gospels to faithfully preserve and protect the church and 
to promote its interests. The papal nuncio, the personal rep- 
resentative of the pope at Quito, has always been the most 
influential personage in the republic. The archbishop has sat 
in the cabinet. A crucifix has stood upon the desks of the 
president of the senate and the speaker of the house of repre- 
sentatives, and before a member of either body engages in 
debate he is expected to make the sign of the cross in recog- 
nition of its presence and then address the presiding officer. 
For many years congress has appropriated $25,000 annually 
as a gift to the pope, and no matter what was the condition of 
the treasury it has always been promptly paid. During the 
war between the temporal and the spiritual powers of Italy 
congress passed a resolution and sent an ambassador to invite 

81 



82 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the pope to make his permanent home in Ecuador, just as the 
loyal people of Barbados offered the hospitality of that little 
island to George III., if Napoleon drove him out of England. 

Garcia Moreno, who was president or dictator from 1861 
till he was assassinated in 1875, placed the bleeding heart of 
Jesus as a coat of arms upon the banner of Ecuador, as Mexico 
has a cactus and an eagle, as China a dragon and Japan a sun. 
He called his bodyguard "The Holy Lancers of the Blessed 
Virgin" and formed his army into "The Division of the 
Mother of God," "The Division of the Son of God," "The 
Division of the Holy Ghost" and "The Division of the Body 
and the Blood of Christ." 

He suppressed all secular newspapers and periodicals out- 
side the city of Guayaquil. He forbade the importation of 
secular books and made Jesuit priests inspectors in the custom 
house. He placed all schools, universities, libraries, museums, 
hospitals, asylums and other public institutions under the con- 
trol of the church and imported from Spain and Italy a large 
number of monks to act as teachers and managers. 

This was acceptable to the people of the interior, but was 
exceedingly unpopular in Guayaquil and other cities on the 
coast, which pay most of the taxes, and where the people 
travel abroad and come in contact with strangers from other 
countries. They had an opportunity to compare the condi- 
tions of Ecuador with those existing in foreign lands, and, 
claiming that progress could not be made as rapidly as long as 
priests and monks controlled affairs, began to grow restless. 
The newspapers took up the discussion, and it was a common 
topic of debate in the clubs and market places. The suc- 
cessors of Moreno continued his policy, and finally a pretext 
for a remonstrance occurred in the city of Guayaquil when the 
catholic bishop excommunicated from the church three judges 
of the Supreme Court who rendered a decision contrary to his 
ideas. 

A public meeting of merchants, lawyers and all the leading 
citizens was called to protest and marched in a body to the 
bishop's residence. The latter, who was protected by a mili- 
tary guard, claimed to believe that this assemblage of business 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR 83 

men was a mob that meant violence and ordered the soldiers 
to fire. Several of the foremost citizens of Guayaquil fell on 
the plaza. 

Their bodies were taken home amid intense excitement, 
the guard at the bishop's palace was strengthened, the street 
was filled with soldiers and the city was placed under martial 
law. Instead of expressing regret at his mistake, the bishop 
cursed the souls of the dead, forbade the churches to be used 
for their funerals and prohibited their burial in consecrated 
ground. Notwithstanding this edict, on the day appointed, 
the bodies of the dead were carried to the plaza, the doors of 
the cathedral, which had been barred, were broken down, and 
the Rev. Dr. Calderon, a priest of brilliant attainments and 
liberal views, volunteered to celebrate a requiem mass, which 
was followed by speeches from several prominent citizens 
protesting against the despotism of the governor and demand- 
ing that the bishop should be indicted and tried for murder. 

A procession was then formed, which included 90 per cent 
of the population of the city, the coffins of the dead were 
carried on their shoulders to the cemetery, which, having been 
locked, was violently entered, and the usual catholic service 
was read over the graves by Dr. Calderon. 

Fearing the indignation of the public, President Camaano 
hurried the bishop on board a little gunboat and carried him 
to a place of safety, and it was well that he did, for upon their 
return from the cemetery the people broke into the prelate's 
palace, destroyed his furniture and would have hung him. 
On the following day the newspapers of Guayaquil, without 
exception, demanded the prosecution of the bishop to vindi- 
cate the honor of Catholicism, and declared that there could be 
no peace in the country unless he was punished. A petition 
was sent to the archbishop at Quito, who banished the offender 
to a retreat in the. mountains and placed in charge of the 
diocese of Guayaquil a wise and prudent man, who succeeded 
in suppressing the excitement and prevented a revolution. 
But the incident caused the formation of a liberal party, which 
was organized for the express purpose of resisting the power 
of the priesthood and separating the church from the state. 



84 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

President Flores, who was a wise and able man, was shortly 
afterward elected to office and used his best endeavors to con- 
ciliate the liberal element, which hitherto had taken little part 
in politics. 

Up to that time one-tenth of the gross products of the 
country was paid to the church in kind, according to the 
Mosaic law. Every peasant took to the priest of his parish 
one-tenth of all the beans and corn he raised, and the big 
haciendados or planters gave the financial representative of 
the bishop one quintal of cocoa for every nine they sent to 
market. President Flores had this law repealed and substi- 
tuted for it a tax of three-tenths of one per cent upon the 
appraised valuation of all real and personal property in the 
republic for the benefit of the church. He intended to concil- 
iate public sentiment, but produced the contrary result, and 
the hostility of the priesthood became more and more pro- 
nounced. The peasants were relieved of the tithes, but the 
entire burden fell upon the landowners and business men, who 
refused to be taxed to support priests. The plea that the 
proceeds were devoted to sustaining schools, hospitals and 
asylums, which was largely true, was not accepted. The 
people refused to pay the tax ; the liberal party grew rapidly 
in numbers and strength. The newspapers of Guayaquil, 
which were the only ones published in Ecuador, openly 
attacked the government for the first time. Professional men 
and merchants and other people of property and education 
renewed their activity in politics to awaken public sentiment 
in favor of a change of policy. 

In the meantime a man named Elroy Alfaro, who was 
expelled for conspiracy against the government, had been 
appearing and reappearing in different parts of the country at 
the head of unsuccessful revolutionary movements. For 
several months he controlled the provinces along the sea 
coast, but had been driven out again and again and had taken 
refuge in Panama or Peru to renew his efforts as often as he 
could secure men and money. It was believed that Alfaro 
was receiving assistance from business men in Guayaquil, 
although he had no open support there. President Camaano, 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR 85 

who had been the most successful in preserving order since 
the assassination of Gen. Moreno, was re-elected. 

With a firm hand he suppressed the discontent that was 
growing throughout the country and restored order, until he 
was himself compelled to fly to escape public indignation that 
was aroused by a little incident of an unusual character. He 
acted as a go-between in the sale by Chile of the cruiser 
Esmarelda to the government of Japan during its war with 
China in 1895. General Camaano received a liberal commis- 
sion, variously reported from $50,000 to $250,000, but put the 
money in his own pocket, and when the people of Ecuador 
learned the facts they rose in fury and he had to flee. He 
went to Spain and has since been living in Barcelona. Ex- 
President Flores, his brother-in-law, and others of his friends 
were also sent into exile, and, taking advantage of the con- 
fusion and excitement, Elroy Alfaro, who had been hovering 
around like a stormy petrel, seized the government and pro- 
claimed himself dictator. 

The following year he held an election and was declared 
"constitutional president." Alfaro at once proclaimed a 
liberal policy and a dissolution of the relations between the 
church and state, which culminated in October, 1898, by the 
passage of a law abolishing the tax for the support of the 
church, forbidding interference in political affairs by priests 
and bishops, depriving the archbishop of his seat in the cabi- 
net and cutting off all the perquisites from the government 
that had been enjoyed by the clergy. The constitution was 
not amended, nor was religion made free by law, but by 
practice, and in 1896, for the first time in the history of 
Ecuador, protestant missionaries were admitted to the country 
and permitted to hold public worship and establish schools. 

These missionaries have met with difficulties and interfer- 
ence from the priests and the people, but have been tolerated 
if not encouraged by the government. They have been given 
to understand that they will be permitted to establish schools 
and churches and conduct religious services wherever they 
choose to do so without interfering with official affairs or the 
rights of others, and it is expected at the next meeting of 






86 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

congress a law will be passed granting freedom of worship in 
Ecuador to all religious denominations. 

The marriage law, however, has not yet been amended. 
No protestant clergyman is allowed to perform the ceremony, 
and under the existing statutes no marriage is lawful unless 
sanctioned by a catholic priest. Children born after protestant 
marriages are considered illegitimate, and cannot inherit prop- 
erty, but it is expected that this will all be changed if Alfaro 
remains in power and the civil right of marriage established. 

Alfaro claims to be a good catholic, but holds that the 
church should attend exclusively to the spiritual welfare of 
the people, as in the United States, and let politics alone. 

It was not to be expected that the priests would allow them- 
selves to be deprived of the power and perquisites which they 
had enjoyed so long without a protest or resistance, and they 
have attempted several revolutions, which were feeble and 
unsuccessful. Alfaro was very lenient with them in compar- 
ison with the previous customs of the country, and endeavored 
to pursue a conciliatory policy to reconcile the clergy to the 
new order of things. He expelled the bishop of Guayaquil 
and Bishop Shoemaker, of Manabi, a German Jesuit, who 
organized a revolution, and a large number of priests who 
were detected in conspiracy, but his orders of banishment 
have been directed at individuals rather than orders, and only 
against priests and monks of foreign birth, and no one has 
been tortured or shot for treason, which is an unusual record 
for this country. The liberal element think he is too lenient, 
for the people are not accustomed to such mercy and may 
mistake it for cowardice. A large number of priests and 
monks have left the county, however, both from fear and 
from lack of support. Some have gone to Colombia and Peru, 
where they are welcome and await with hope an opportunity 
to return to Ecuador. Some have gone to the United States- 
there is a large colony of exiles in Brooklyn and another in 
Baltimore — and more have gone to Europe. They are mostly 
monks of the various orders. It is said, however, that many 
priests have remained and are collecting what they can from 
their parishes. Their former stipends are entirely cut off. 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR 87 

They now have to depend upon voluntary contributions, and 
the people outside of Guayaquil are very poor. The church 
owned an enormous amount of property, consisting of both 
city real estate and productive plantations. The latter belonged 
chiefly to the monastic orders, and were worked under the 
direction of the monks, who retained the proceeds for the 
benefit of their own brotherhoods. The income of the church 
proper is insufficient to support the large priesthood. There 
is a catholic church for every 150 inhabitants, and a few years 
ago 10 per cent of the entire population was either priests, 
monks or nuns. 

When President Alfaro cut off the subsidy which the gov- 
ernment of Ecuador had been giving to the church the priests 
closed the schools and left the entire country without any 
means of education except a few private institutions. Until 
then the entire educational system of Ecuador was under con- 
trol of the priests, and the parochial schools offered a meager 
opportunity for the children in the cities and villages to obtain 
the rudiments of learning. They were taught to read and 
write and the simple rules of arithmetic, but gave more time 
to the study of the catechism and the lives of the saints than 
to secular text-books. The attendance was comparatively 
limited ; not one child out of ten in the towns and villages 
attended even the parish schools, and those in the rural dis- 
tricts had no facilities whatever. Therefore about 75 per cent 
of the population of Ecuador is absolutely illiterate. 

The priests explained to the people that suspension of the 
schools was due to the parsimony and the indifference of 
the new president and the liberal party. In consequence a 
violent hostility was aroused against the liberal government, 
which was not prepared to supply a school system upon such 
short notice. A few months later, however, Alfaro retaliated 
by securing the passage of an act by congress confiscating to 
the state all church property and placing the mines, the cocoa 
and sugar plantations and much valuable real estate in the 
cities under the management of a board of trustees appointed 
by him, the proceeds to be applied to the support of free 
schools. This act excited the greatest degree of indignation 



88 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

among the sympathizers of the church, and the clergy 
attempted to incite another revolution. 

The Franciscan, Dominican, Capuchins and other monastic 
orders owned nearly one-third of the entire productive prop- 
erty of the republic, and hence were the principal sufferers. 
While the law was pending they made haste to convey the 
titles of much of their property to local laymen for fictitious 
considerations, but the government has refused to recognize 
the validity of these transfers. 

If the estates confiscated from the church could be managed 
honestly for the benefit of the schools, the children of Ecuador 
would have a heritage as rich as those enjoyed by the present 
generation in Kansas, Colorado and other of our western 
states and territories, where a wise congress dedicated a large 
portion of the public domain to the aid of learning. 

In the summer of 1899 President Alfaro entered into aeon- 
tract with the Rev. Dr. Wood, who was in charge of the 
methodist missions in Peru, to organize a school system for 
Ecuador, and the work is now in progress under the direction 
of protestant teachers. 

President Elroy Alfaro was born of mixed Indian and Span- 
ish ancestry in the town of Monte Christi, in the province of 
Manabi, in the year 1833, so that he is now sixty-seven years 
old. That province has been distinguished for producing an 
independent and combative race of men who have given the 
government a great deal of trouble. Law and order have not 
always prevailed there ; quarrels are usually settled by force, 
and people who have suffered injury are accustomed to apply 
the remedy with their own hands instead of appealing to the 
courts. Nearly all of the professional revolutionists in Ecua- 
dor have come from that section, and Alfaro has not lacked 
the provincial traits. After having served ten years in the 
army, he began his career as a revolutionist as long ago as 
1865, when he organized a movement for the overthrow of 
General Garcia-Moreno, the ablest and most despotic dictator 
Ecuador has ever known. Alfaro ambushed Gen. Salazar and 
a small force of soldiers in one of the forests of Manabi, 
and took them prisoners, but the General managed to escape, 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR 89 

and, having joined his main forces, made a prompt attack 
upon the rebels and captured Alfaro, who was banished from 
the country as a disturber of the peace. 

He obtained employment in Panama, where he remained 
for ten years, accumulating considerable money, and enjoying 
an intimate acquaintance with another political exile from 
Ecuador of an entirely different character, — Juan Montvalo, 
the founder of the Liberal party in that republic. His literary 
works rank high in Spanish literature and are even better 
known in Europe than in his own country, where he gained 
his chief fame as a leader of the revolutionary party and the 
anti-church element of the population. 

Alfaro sat at the feet of Montvalo for ten years and 
absorbed his political ideas so that, in 1876, when an attempt 
was made by the republicans of Ecuador to overthrow the 
dictator Veintemilla, he reappeared in his native province and 
raised a regiment for the revolutionary army. The move- 
ment, however, was unsuccessful. Alfaro was captured and 
lay for a year in a filthy prison in Guayaquil, where he nearly 
died of dysentery. Through the intercession of friends he was 
released on parole and again banished. For three years he 
remained quietly in Panama, but made a third attempt at 
revolution in 1880, which also failed and he was once more a 
fugitive. In 1882 and 1883 he inaugurated other revolutions 
that were more successful and resulted in the overthrow of 
Veintemilla. He proclaimed himself dictator and it was 
expected that he would be given the presidency, but the 
Camaano-Flores faction were better politicians and succeeded 
in seizing the civil power. Alfaro remained in command of 
the army for a few months, but finding that he could make no 
progress he resigned, retired from the country, and in the 
following year organized another revolution against his former 
allies. 

He seized the steamer Alajuela and cruised down the coast 
from port to port towards Guayaquil. The government sent 
a man-of-war after him and the two ships fought a battle in 
the darkness a few miles off the coast. The Alajuela caught 
fire and her crew leaped into the water to save themselves. 



go BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

An Irish- American by the name of Power, whose acquaintance 
Alfaro had made at Panama, took charge of his leader, per- 
suaded him to crawl into a barrel and, being a powerful 
swimmer, pushed the barrel ashore. As Alfaro could not 
swim a stroke he considers that he owes his life to Power, and 
has given evidences of his gratitude on frequent occasions. 
Power now has command of the Navy of Ecuador, which 
consists of two small gun-boats, and is considered the most 
influential man with the administration in the entire republic. 

Having landed on the beach, Alfaro and Power were com- 
pelled to hide in the jungle to escape capture, and made their 
way over a mountain trail for 200 miles into the republic of 
Colombia. They were not allowed to remain there, however, 
and took the first opportunity to sail for Nicaraugua, where 
they obtained commissions in the army. They served under 
President Bonilla in Honduras, also until 1895, when another 
revolutionary movement broke out in Ecuador and they 
returned to participate in it. Alfaro soon obtained the com- 
mand of the revolutionary forces, overthrew the government, 
declared himself dictator, and, in 1896, was elected constitu- 
tional president. 

In appearance President Alfaro is a short, stout gentle- 
man, with a cordial, yet grave and confident manner. His 
eyes, hair and complexion testify to his Indian origin. 

Among other commendable efforts on the part of President 
Alfaro to redeem Ecuador was the passage of an act by the 
congress in 1899, placing the currency on a gold standard after 
the expiration of two years , the latter condition being allowed 
in order to give an opportunity to withdraw and redeem an 
uncertain amount and great variety of money now in circula- 
tion. The new law was written by Martin Reinberg, United 
States vice-consul, and a committee composed of bankers and 
merchants in Guayaquil, to whose judgment the matter was 
Tef erred by the president, and it was the subject of long and 
earnest reflection. Ecuador has been a so-called bimetallic 
country, but practically monometallic. There has been no 
gold in circulation, and none has been coined for many years. 
There is considerable silver, but more paper, which is nom- 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF ECUADOR 91 

inally redeemable in silver, and was issued by the banks of 
Guayaquil. The standard of value has been a "sucre," which 
contains as many grains of silver as the Peruvian "sol," and 
is divided into decimal fractions. The paper currency was 
issued in $1, $5 and $10 notes, printed on paper of poor 
quality, which easily wears out, so that the banks derive a 
considerable profit from its destruction. There are no banks 
outside of Guayaquil. Some of them, however, have agencies 
in other cities. Exchange has often fluctuated as much as 
from 40 per cent to 60 per cent within a few months, and 
during recent years, owing to the excess of imports, it was 
frequently impossible to obtain drafts on New York or Lon- 
don. This, of course, was a decided embarrassment to all 
foreigners traveling or living in the country. 

The new law adopts a bimetallic ratio of 30 6-10 to 1. The 
gold condor, which is to have the same value as the English 
pound sterling and be worth $4.85 in American gold, will 
become the standard of value in January, 1901, and ten silver 
"sucres," now worth about 48 cents each, will be equal to a 
gold condor. A limited amount of paper can be issued by 
the banks for the convenience of commerce, but must be 
redeemable at the option of the holder in gold. The silver 
"sucres" are also redeemable in gold to the amount of $5, and 
its multiples. Exchange was arbitrarily fixed by an agree- 
ment between the banks and the leading merchants at $1.08 
and $1.10, and was maintained at that rate. The business 
men adjusted themselves to the situation without difficulty, 
and as Guayaquil is the only commercial city in the country 
the few merchants who control the capital there are able to 
carry out any policy they may decide upon. 



VII 
THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 

Frederick E. Church, the famous artist, asserted that the 
grandest of mountain scenery may be found in Ecuador, and 
that there is nothing elsewhere so imposing, so sublime, as 
the group of volcanic peaks that lie between Quito and the 
sea, where he painted his wonderful picture, "The Heart of 
the Andes. ' ' Nowhere are wilder freaks in geological forma- 
tion ; nowhere more startling contrasts. Within human vision 
are twenty volcanoes covered with everlasting snow and over 
fifty peaks higher than Mont Blanc. Three of the volcanoes 
are active, five are slumbering and the remainder are extinct. 
The mountains of Asia may surpass the Andes in altitude, but 
there is no such group of monsters in so limited an area else- 
where in the world. 

A sea of foothills with the vapor hovering over them like 
sleep upon a drowsy child stands in the foreground beyond the 
jungles of the coast, and growing bolder and bolder, more and 
more rugged, rises in irregular terraces which the Spaniards 
call "sierras," because their uneven summits resemble the 
teeth of a saw. Behind and over them the volcanoes lift their 
untrodden and unapproachable summits with stately grandeur, 
with snows that have lain for ages and still defy the tropical 
sun. Some of the peaks are irregular, some are grotesque in 
outline, and the imaginative minds of the natives have fancied 
resemblances to various other works of nature. Some are 
calmly, grandly regular, and the even snow upon their crests 
seems edged with gold when it catches the reflection of the 
sun, or is often a rainbow of colors — violet, crimson, purple 
and orange. 

Cotopaxi is the loftiest of active volcanoes, but has been 
slumbering for nearly forty years. The only evidence of 

92 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 93 

internal activity is the constant rumbling, which can often be 
heard and felt one hundred miles away, and frequently a thin 
cloud of smoke is seen creeping from the crater and dissolving 
into the thin air. Edward Whymper, the English scientist, 
climbed to the summit of Chimborazo ten or twelve years 
ago, but no one has ever reached the top of Cotopaxi. Many 
have attempted it, but the walls are so steep and the snow is 
so deep that ascent is impossible. 

On the breast of Cotopaxi is a great rock, more than 2,000 
feet high, which the natives have named "The Inca's Head." 
That unreliable old story-teller called tradition says that it 
was once the summit of the volcano, and fell on the day when 
the Spaniards strangled Atahualpa, the last of the Inca 
emperors. 

The last great eruption of Cotopaxi was in 1859. It was 
followed by a severe earthquake, which caused great destruc- 
tion and loss of life in the surrounding towns and villages. In 
1868 the volcano Tunguragua, one of the largest of the group, 
and over 17,000 feet high, became very much excited, and 
discharged immense masses of lava and ashes simultaneous 
with a terrestrial convulsion which extended along the entire 
south Pacific coast. It was then that the tidal wave came into 
Arica that lifted the United States man-of-war Wateree over 
the roofs of the houses and landed it with a straight heel in a 
sandy plateau about half a mile from the ocean, where it still 
remains. 

When you leave the Guayas River in Ecuador to go south- 
ward you strike the Zona Seca, the desert coast, almost as soon 
as you pass the boundary of Peru. The steamer follows the 
coast line as closely as safety will allow, and the passengers 
are almost continually in sight of scenery that is both imposing 
and repulsive. It bears a close resembance to that of the great 
plateau of Arizona. The western chain of the Andes, or the 
Cordilleras de la Costa, as they are called in the Spanish geog- 
raphies, run parallel to the ocean, with a strip of desert about 
thirty miles wide lying between. The surf has pounded away 
upon it until the soft places in the clay cliffs, which rise from 
the water, sometimes to the height of 300 and 400 feet, have 



94 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

yielded, and present an outline similar to the wind-carved 
cliffs on the great American desert. Occasionally a rocky 
promontory which has resisted the water, extends into the 
sea, gray with guano dropped by the millions of water birds 
that make their homes along the wave-worn and forbidding 
shore. 

The mountains are black, barren and rugged, and rise in 
ranges like soldiers on parade, the smaller in the front rank, 
the taller in the rear, and often reach the snow line, which in 
this equatorial latitude is about 15,000 feet above tidewater. 
The mountains appear gloomy, mysterious and forbidding 
from a distance, and I suppose they would be even more dis- 
agreeable upon intimate acquaintance, if one may speak in 
that familiar way of such monsters of omnipotence. Their 
aspect is constantly changing. In the morning they are half 
hidden by heavy banks of clouds, from which their steel-tinted 
peaks emerge, as if the Titans were too tall for the curtains 
that nature hangs before them. At noonday they show clear, 
sharp silhouettes against the azure sky, and later in the day, 
when the sun is about to be swallowed by the ocean, they take 
on a robe of purple that becomes them best. 

The desert is covered with shifting sands, and just north 
of the port of Eten, where many of the finest Panama hats are 
made, the roofless walls of the original village are pointed 
out, which was partially buried twenty years ago. The church 
and several large adobe houses are still standing, but it took 
so much labor to shovel the sand out of the streets and houses 
every day, that the people moved four miles to the southward 
and started a new town in the shelter of a bluff 640 feet high. 
There is a railroad there which runs to the town of Chicalayo, 
a little oasis in the desert, where a stream has the courage to 
come out of the mountains and irrigate large fields of sugar 
and rice. An iron mole at Eten extends about 1,000 feet into 
the sea, beyond the heavy rollers, but it is impossible for a 
steamer to reach it, and all the passengers and cargo that 
come and go are hoisted up and down by cranes that are run 
with steam. The passengers, for safety, are locked into iron 
cages which are suddenly hoisted from the pier, swung around 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 95 

into the air and then dropped into the lighters at an opportune 
moment as a wave passes by. 

Near by Eten is the village of Santa Rosa, which is unique 
and famous as being the only place in Peru where the original 
Chimu language is spoken, and where the Indians have pre- 
served their ancient customs and protected their race from 
adulteration with the Spaniards. They have accepted the 
catholic religion, but it is strangely mixed with the peculiar 
customs which the people have inherited. 

A great deal of water comes down from the mountains, 
caused by the melting snows and the rains that fall in the 
interior, but it is swallowed by the thirsty desert before it can 
reach the sea. Back toward the foothills, before the streams 
disappear in the sand, there is considerable agricultural 
activity, and shiploads of produce are sent north and south to 
less favored regions by the steamers that ply this coast. 

The geologists say that the highest peaks of these moun- 
tains were once submerged in the sea, and are the result of 
upheaval and the accumulation of sediment from the subsid- 
ing waters. They were subjected not only to water, but also 
to intense heat and acid vapors which changed the feldspar 
into sulphates of alumina and iron and into chlorides and 
iodides and all sorts of minerals with long names which have 
made Peru the richest territory on earth, although the greater 
part of the deposits are inaccessible without railway transpor- 
tation. The desert is rich in petroleum, sulphur, salt, nitrates, 
gypsum, magnesia and borax. The foothills conceal an 
abundance of silver, gold, copper, lead, coal, iron and nickel, 
and far in the interior are found emeralds, rubies, turquoise 
and even diamonds — the jewels with which the Incas adorned 
their persons — but the region is so inhospitable that man 
cannot exist there. 

The first place of importance is Paita, a collection of mud 
huts, which has considerable commerce because it is the port 
of Piura, the second city in Peru, the center of a rich agricul- 
tural district and a sanitarium, with which it is connected by 
a railway. But all the climates on the face of the earth are 
found in the Andes, caused by the modifying influences of 



96 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

elevation. The montana, as they call it, which slopes off to 
the east from the summits of the range, has a dense growth 
of timber and a rich soil when cleared; the puna, a great 
plain between the two ranges of the Andes, is a dreary and 
cheerless region, too high and cold to support mankind 
without severe labor. The sierra, as the foothills are called, 
possesses a charming climate and an atmosphere that is as 
pure as air can be, where rain seldom falls and where there is 
nothing to corrupt the original plan of nature. 

Like the arid lands of Arizona and southern California, the 
desert coast of Peru is rich in vegetable life whenever it can 
be moistened. The dry sand is filled with the germs of plants, 
fruits and flowers, which in some remote cycle and under 
entirely different atmospheric conditions flourished and 
ripened. Sometimes, about once a generation, a shower 
escapes from the mountains and is poured over the sands. 
The hitherto lifeless earth springs immediately into being. 
In 1892, upon the desert between Piata and Piura there fell a 
series of unprecedented rains. Within a few days the surface 
of the earth was alive with sprouting plants and afterward 
with brilliant flowers, many of which were unknown to botan- 
ists. Vegetables and melons grew in profusion and furnished 
abundant food to the wondering inhabitants, who regarded it 
as a miracle. Even a heavy fog sometimes brings out the 
vegetation and causes the undigested seeds dropped by the 
mule trains to sprout and root and grow to sufficient height to 
feed the animals. 

Twenty years ago an enterprising Chinaman built an inn 
midway between Paita and Piura. All his supplies were 
brought from the latter place, and even his water was trans- 
ported seven leagues on the cars. It occurred to him to drive 
a well, and a short distance below the surface he found an 
abundance of water, with which he irrigated a little garden 
and raised vegetables and fruits that were the wonder of the 
coast. These lands were supposed to be the property of 
the state, and no mortal ever claimed ownership to them until 
one day a man appeared to demand the surrender of the half 
acre of garden which the Chinaman had made a blessing to all 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 97 

that region. A reference to the records showed that the 
claimant had inherited from his ancestors a grant from the 
Spanish crown which made him the owner of a certain area 
"along the River Chuyra, and then toward the orient as far 
as goats would go without water. ' ' 

On the top of the hill above the town of Paita is a big cross 
which was erected many generations ago by a pious priest 
to frighten the devil away from the town, but from the repu- 
tation of some of the inhabitants the precaution was not 
successful. Fronting the custom house in the main street, 
near the end of the pier, is the Church of St. Merced, which 
shelters a most remarkable image of wood. According to the 
story told there, about 200 years ago Lord Anson, an English 
admiral, attacked the town, drove all the people into the 
church and locked the doors, while his sailors sacked the 
houses. After they had secured all the plunder they could 
find they turned the inhabitants into the street and destroyed 
the interior of the temple so far as they were able. They 
tipped the images from the altar and hacked them with their 
swords, and when one sacrilegious ruffian struck a wooden 
effigy of the Virgin across the neck with his cutlass blood 
flowed freely from the wound. And ever since, on the anni- 
versary of that sacrilege, the wound bleeds anew. The image 
performs many miracles. A drop of blood is a cure for every 
ill to whomsoever makes a liberal offering, but the United 
States consul told us that few people believe in the story now. 

On either side of the entrance to the church is an enormous 
shell which contains holy water. They are said to be the 
largest shells in the world, being about three feet long and 
two feet wide, and are said to have been presented to the 
church by some grateful sailor who was saved from shipwreck 
by appealing for the intervention of the Virgin of Paita during 
a typhoon among the islands of the South Sea. 

The altar is covered with votive offerings and bedecked 
with masses of artifical flowers. The image of the Virgin is 
clothed in a robe of white satin embroidered heavily with 
silver. Among other votive offerings which have been placed 
upon the altar by devotees who have enjoyed the succor of 



98 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the Virgin, is a painted ship carrying at its masthead the flag 
of the United States, showing that some grateful Yankee 
skipper was saved from shipwreck by her miraculous powers. 

Piura is a famous sanitarium and is visited by invalids from 
all along the coast of Chile and Peru. Nervous diseases, 
consumption, bronchitis and other ailments of the lungs and 
throat are said to be cured within a few months, and even the 
dead in that rare atmosphere escape the ordinary process of 
putrefaction. It is said that an open coffin containing the 
body of a dead priest lay for several years in the open cemetery. 

During the civil war in the United States, when cotton 
commanded high prices, an enterprising Yankee, living in that 
section, introduced its cultivation on the plains around Piura, 
with great success. The Incas raised immense quantities of 
the staple in that locality and at other places along the coast 
before the conquest, and with it made their garments. A 
considerable quantity is still raised and shipped to Europe, 
where it is used for the adulteration of silks and wool. It is 
not planted annually, like the cotton of the United States, but 
the same plants bear for several years in succession and yield 
a continuous crop. The seed has been taken to other regions, 
where it was supposed the soil offered similar advantages, but 
every attempt to raise the peculiar Piura cotton has been a 
failure. 

The natural color of the fiber is a light brown, and it can- 
not be bleached. The natives use it, as the Incas did, for 
weaving ponchos and other garments. It never fades. The 
bodies of mummies which have lain in the ground for several 
centuries wrapped in cloth made from this fiber are often 
exhumed, and the cerements when exposed to the air recover 
their brilliancy of color. The shipments of cotton from Paita 
amount to about the value of $1,200,000 a year. 

The petroleum interest of Peru, which is very large, 
although still undeveloped, centers at Tumbez, on the northern 
frontier, where Pizarro landed with his expedition for the 
conquest of Peru after leaving the island of Puno. There was 
a palace of the Incas, and there the Spaniards first beheld the 
opulence and civilization of their empire. Pizarro explored 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 99 

the country without interruption, cultivated the good will of 
the natives, and attached to himself two young men, who were 
instructed in Spanish, so as to serve as interpreters. After 
remaining at Tumbez for several months he returned to 
Panama and from there went to Spain to report and place his 
plans before the emperor. He asked for a force of 250 men, 
with arms and ammunition, which he agreed to pay for, and 
also promised that the king should have all the territory he 
should conquer and one-fifth of the treasure he found. It is 
an interesting historical fact that Cortez, who had recently 
returned from the conquest of Mexico, furnished Pizarro the 
funds to fit out his expedition, and that Fernando de Soto, 
who afterward discovered the Mississippi River, was second 
in command. 

The Spaniards discovered the oil shortly after their arrival 
and used it for lubricating purposes, as the natives had done 
before them, but no attempt was made to bore wells until 
about thirty years ago, when a Pennsylvania prospector 
named Larkin and his associates came down here and explored 
the country. They satisfied themselves of the extent and 
quality of the deposits and asked from the government an 
exclusive concession for refining and selling oil in Peru. They 
demanded a complete monopoly and overreached themselves. 
The government was willing to give them an exclusive right 
to refine for a certain term of years and place a heavy duty 
upon imported oil, but would not prohibit importations nor 
give a perpetual monopoly. 

Several attempts were afterward made to interest the 
Standard Oil Company, which sent men from New York to 
make an investigation, but for some reason that great octopus 
did not utilize the opportunity that was offered and the oil 
wells were idle until about twelve years ago, when an English 
company erected refineries and has since been producing a 
limited quantity. Other companies followed the example and 
tank steamers were built to transport the oil up and down the 
coast, where the total absence of wood and the high price of 
coal give the fuel question great importance. To aid the 
companies the government imposed a heavy duty upon North 

5... «►? & 



ioo BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

American petroleum and the local product is now selling for 
about 1 8 cents a gallon. The locomotives on several of the 
railroads were equipped with oil burners and for a time used 
that kind of fuel, but for some reason or other they soon 
abandoned them, and prefer to pay all the way from $10 to 
$15 a ton for coal rather than use oil. I have not been able 
to ascertain the reason. The oil of Tumbez, however, is still 
burned in several manufacturing establishments in the neigh- 
borhood of Lima. 

So far as exploration has gone the petroleum beds cover 
an area of 16,000 square miles, and as the neighboring country 
is of precisely the same geological character it is assumed that 
the field is practically unlimited. The wells are from 200 to 
500 feet deep and very little water is found. The crude oil 
differs essentially from that of Pennsylvania in the absence of 
paraffin, and can be exposed to a very low temperature with- 
out becoming solidified. The analysis is similar to that of the 
oil of Russia. 

About $4,000,000 has already been invested in refineries 
and other plants and in a line of tank steamers, but for some 
reason the industry does not flourish, is not considered profita- 
ble, and several of the refineries are idle. 

As I have suggested, the fuel problem is a serious one 
along this coast. There is no coal mined between Coronel, 
a town about 400 miles south of Valparaiso, Chile, and Puget 
Sound. The Chile coal is a medium quality of bituminous, 
and is used by most of the steamers, selling for $6 and $7 a 
ton. The mines are on the bluffs that overhang the ocean, so 
that it is easily handled. Overhead railways have been con- 
structed from the tunnels to the end of piers so that buckets 
of coal filled in the mines can be dumped into the vessels 
automatically. The English steamship company prefers to 
bring its coal from Cardiff in sailing vessels around Cape 
Horn, and stores it in old hulks in Panama and Callao. The 
Pacific Mail steamers on the west coast of Mexico and Central 
America bring their coal in the same way from Baltimore and 
Newport News, while their supply at San Francisco comes 
from British Columbia. 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 101 

There is, no doubt, a vast quantity of coal in the Peruvian 
mountains. Outcroppings appear at frequent intervals for 
several hundred miles, but they lie a considerable distance 
inland, across the desert and west of the first range of sierras, 
which makes the deposits inaccessible and useless without the 
construction of expensive railways. 

A company was formed in the United States to develop a 
large deposit of anthracite coal about 120 miles northeast of 
Pacasmayo, and Mr. G. Clinton Gardner, formerly a division 
superintendent on the Pennsylvania Railroad, is in charge of 
the enterprise. The railway by the nearest route will not be 
less than 112 miles long, and must cross the mountains at an 
altitude of 12,000 feet, which will make construction very 
expensive, although there are said to be no serious engineer- 
ing difficulties. The government of Peru is willing to lend its 
credit, which is not first-class, and give a nominal subsidy; 
but as near as I can find out the difficulty lies in the lack of a 
safe and convenient port on the ocean. 

Pacasmayo has no harbor. Ships have to anchor in an 
open roadstead with a dangerous bottom and a heavy surf, 
which is sometimes so high that they are unable to land either 
cargo or passengers. A substantial steel pier has been 
extended about three-quarters of a mile into the ocean, with a 
line of railway upon it, and connects with a road that runs 
into the interior for twenty-five or thirty miles. Formerly the 
cars upon this pier were moved by sail power. Pacasmayo 
has the benefit of what sailors call a "soldiers' wind," which 
always blows from the same direction, and generally stiff 
enough to furnish motive power to move a heavily loaded car, 
but that novel method has been abandoned and a little switch 
engine now does the work. 

Passengers and freight are hoisted up and down from and 
to immense lighters by steam cranes, but it would be difficult 
and expensive to handle coal in that way. The only good 
port on this part of the coast is at Chimbote, a hundred miles 
or more to the southward. That has a land-locked harbor, 
with plenty of water, and it would be easy and inexpensive to 
construct docks with chutes by which the coal could be trans- 



102 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

f erred directly from the cars to the steamer; but the distance 
from Chimbote to the mines is nearly twice as far as from 
Pacasmayo, and the railway would cost twice as much. It is 
argued, however, that the difference in the cost of handling 
coal would more than pay the interest upon the money neces- 
sary to build the longer line. 

Another important feature in the fuel problem on the west 
coast of South America which must be considered in connec- 
tion with all coal mining investments, is the fact that the large 
fleets of sailing vessels which carry nitrates from the coast of 
Chile to the ports of Great Britain and Continental Europe, 
find coal the most convenient and profitable return cargo, and 
often bring it from Cardiff and Hamburg around Cape Horn 
to Iquiqui and Antafogasta for five shillings or one dollar 
and twenty-five cents a ton, when no other freight is offered. 
At other times it is brought as ballast and sold on commission 
for whatever it brings over the market price in Europe. Sev- 
eral hundred of the finest sailing ships in the world are 
engaged in this traffic under the British, French, German and 
Norwegian flags, and their consignees control the coal market. 
By pooling their interests they are able to keep up the price 
and make a large profit, so that any mine that may be opened 
is at their mercy. Some years ago the Standard Oil Company 
almost ruined the petroleum producers in Peru by underselling 
them. The sailing ships which carried nitrate of soda to the 
United States were loaded with refined petroleum at New 
York, Baltimore and Norfolk and brought it to the ports of 
Chile and Peru as ballast, where it was sold for just enough to 
cover its original cost and the duty. The refiners of Peru 
cannot produce the same grade of oil and cannot sell even the 
poor quality that they do make at such low prices without 
losing money, hence for a time they were deprived of the 
greater part of their market and several of the refineries were 
compelled to shut down. 

Not long ago, up in the mountains north of Pacasmayo, 
near the town of Cajamarca, the pious people burned an old 
woman for a witch. They had suffered from various plagues 
individually and collectively, and in seeking for a cause 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 103 

accused a poor old Indian hag- of witchcraft. The village 
padre was consulted, and by his advice she was burned at the 
stake, as was formerly done to such persons in New England. 
But the imitator of the Rev. Cotton Mather, of Salem, Mass., 
was arrested, convicted, stripped of his sacerdotal robes and 
sentenced for life to the penitentiary in Lima, where he is now 
employed in manufacturing harness. It occurred to me that 
the people of our southern States might find a moral in this 
little incident. 

Witchcraft is generally believed in among the Indians, and 
at nearly every town along this coast of Peru you will find 
crosses erected at conspicuous places, which are expected to 
frighten the devil away, just as the Chinese place screens in 
front of the entrances to their houses to keep out evil spirits, 
but the people are ignorant Indians. Not one out of one 
hundred can read or write. 

The Island of San Lorenzo, one of the largest upon the 
whole western coast of South America, which protects the 
harbor of Callao, is a modern improvement. It was not there 
when the Spaniards came, but was born October 28, 1746, 
when the natives believe it rose from the bottom of the sea as 
a monument to commemorate an earthquake which took place 
on that occasion and destroyed the city of Callao. The geolo- 
gists, however, assert that this story is preposterous because 
the island shows signs of greater age, is composed of the same 
rock as that upon which the town is resting, contains the 
same fossils, is covered with the same soil as the adjacent 
shore and belongs to an older period than the middle of the 
last century. They admit that the earthquake may have sep- 
arated the island from the mainland, and the topographical 
appearance confirms such a theory, but that the great barren 
pile of rocks came into existence as Venus did they positively 
deny It is, nevertheless, a pretty legend. 

One Lorenzo Villalta, a humble fisherman, was setting his 
nets in the bay on the night of October 27, 1746, when he was 
interrupted by a prodigious commotion on the inside of the 
earth. He was frightened into a swoon and when he awoke 
found himself on the top of a mountain entirely surrounded by 



io4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

water. He could see the shore line clearly, but it looked 
strange to him, and the city of Callao had disappeared. With 
difficulty he made his way down to the water and swam to the 
mainland, where he found that the town had been entirely 
destroyed by an earthquake and a tidal wave, and that 5,000 
persons had perished. To-day at low tide the submerged 
walls of the old city can be seen through the clear water where 
the Yankee cruiser Newark is anchored, and because of the 
extraordinary experience of Lorenzo Villalta the island was 
christened in honor of his patron saint. 

Earthquakes are frequent at Lima. A tremblor — that is, 
a gentle shaking of the earth — occurs every few days, but the 
houses are built to endure it, and the people do not give such 
things much attention ; but when the windows rattle and the 
pictures swing like the pendulum of a clock, and the flagstaff 
on the roof describes an arc in the sky, it means that a tier- 
ramotor is in operation, and the inhabitants run out into the 
street as soon as possible and commence to say their prayers. 
Little destruction has been caused by earthquakes for many 
years, but nature is very uncertain. In the mysterious moun- 
tains all sorts of things are going on and there is no telling 
what capers they may indulge in. 

The castle of San Felipe in the harbor of Callao is famous 
because the Spanish flag waved from its battlements for the 
last time on the continent of America. It was the ultimate 
refuge of Spanish authority on this continent, and the gov- 
ernor of Peru, with a garrison, was beleagured there for eleven 
months by the armies of the patriots during the war for 
independence. They did not surrender until they had eaten 
all their old boots and shoes, made soup of the rats and mice 
and other animals that infested the place, and three-fourths of 
them had died of starvation and exhaustion. 

In the harbor the historic line-of -battle ship Naiad, -with 
a high poop and hanging deck, which fought with the fleet of 
Nelson at Trafalgar, was until a short time ago condemned to 
the humble duty of a storehouse for coal, old anchors, chains 
and cordage for the British fleet on this coast, but has recently 
been broken up, and canes are now being made of its timbers. 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 105 

A curious phenomenon is often observed at Callao. Very 
frequently sailors awaken in the morning to find the woodwork 
and iron of the ships covered with a brownish moisture that 
looks like dew, and unless it is rubbed off immediately it will 
stain old paint permanently. It does not stick to new paint 
and may be wiped off at any time within a few hours. This is 
called "the Callao painter," and the phenomenon has never 
been satisfactorily explained. Nor is it to be found in any 
other port in the world. One theory is that fumes of sul- 
phuric acid or some other acid are forced up through the 
water from the bottom of the harbor during the night, 
and that seems to be reasonable, but no discolored dew is 
noticed on land, and when it is falling it is not perceptible 
to persons aboard the ship; nor does it affect the health of 
the sailors in any way. It simply adds to their labor and 
injures their morals because it compels them to do a lot of 
extra scrubbing and to buy a quantity of extra paint. It is 
especially trying to men-of-war, and they avoid Callao harbor 
for that reason. 

The old city of Callao has been the scene of many exciting 
events. A hundred and fifty years ago an earthquake and a 
tidal wave entirely changed the topography of that part of the 
coast, destroyed 5,000 lives, and left the original city under 
the bed of the bay, where vessels now anchor. In 1866 
during the war between Spain and the republics on this coast, 
a Spanish fleet bombarded Callao, but was driven off with a 
terrible loss. In the war with Chile it was blockaded for 
nearly a year, and some curious incidents occurred. 

One day, while the blockading squadron of Chile lay off 
the port, a small coasting boat came drifting out of the har- 
bor. It was filled with fresh vegetables and there appeared 
to be no one on board. From all the vessels of the fleet boats 
were at once lowered, and there was a lively scramble to 
secure the prize, for the seamen had been living for months 
on short rations of beans and pork and canned stuff, and the 
luscious-looking vegetables sharpened their appetites. After 
a good deal of pulling and hauling and swearing a boat's crew 
from the man-of-war Loa secured possession of the coaster, 



106 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and the officer in command generously promised to send some 
of its contents to its rivals, but never did. 

The prize was hauled alongside of the Loa and its cargo 
transferred to the deck of that vessel. The last thing in the 
bottom was a bag of potatoes, and when that was lifted an 
explosion occurred that made all the vessels in the harbor 
tremble and sent the Loa to the bottom with all on board. 
Captain Paul Boynton, the famous swimmer, who was then in 
Callao, had rigged a powerful torpedo in the bottom of the 
boat, so arranged that it would explode when that bag of 
potatoes was lifted. How well this scheme succeeded the 
navy of Chile knows. 

But even this disastrous experience did not teach the 
Chilanos caution, for a few weeks afterward the same trick 
was repeated with almost as great success. Torpedoes were 
rigged in the air chambers of a life-boat, which was hand- 
somely painted and sent adrift. It was soon picked up by the 
Corodanja, a Chilano cruiser, and, after being carefully 
examined, was declared to be all right; but as soon as the 
tackle from the davits was hitched on and the seamen began 
to haul the prize on board the torpedoes exploded, killed 
several men and made a great hole in the side of the man-of- 
war. The same Yankee that rigged up the vegetable boat 
prepared this trap, and when the Chilanos captured Peru they 
hunted high and low for him, but he had escaped, with the aid 
of one of the captains of a Pacific Steam Navigation Com- 
pany's steamers, in woman's garments. 

The same fleet was gulled again in a very clever way by 
Captain Petrie, in the employ of the Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company. One morning his vessel appeared in the harbor of 
Callao with the yellow-fever flag, so well known on that coast, 
at her masthead, and the union jack at half mast, with the 
ensign down, as a signal of distress. The blockading officers 
at once challenged her and the captain explained that several 
of his officers and engineers, the doctor, and more than half of 
the crew were down with yellow fever. 

"Then get out of here," answered the blockade com- 
mander. 



THE ZONA SECA OF SOUTH AMERICA 107 

"I can't go," was the reply. "I have very little coal, no 
one to run the engines, and there are not well hands enough 
on board to make sail. ' ' 

"What do you want?" 

I want a doctor and some medicine and permission to 
anchor somewhere here. ' ' 

"You can't anchor here," was the reply. 

"Then let me go to Callao." 

The blockading officers held a consultation and finally con- 
cluded that it would be a good campaign maneuver to send 
yellow fever into Callao, so the English captain was permitted 
to pass the blockade. It was afterward discovered that the 
vessel was loaded to her gunwales with arms and ammunition 
and had no sickness whatever on board. The captain was 
dismissed from the service of the Pacific Steam Navigation 
Company on the demand of the government of Chile, as soon 
as the deception was discovered, and now commands a vessel 
plying between London and Calcutta. 

There is a statue in the little plaza in front of the custom 
house in Callao, in honor of Admiral Grau, a native of Piura, 
who was the hero of the war between Chile and Peru, but was 
altogether too humane to suit the temper of the Spanish race. 
During the earlier part of the war the army of Chile was con- 
centrated at the port of Antefogasta, down on the desert coast, 
where all the fresh water available for 100 miles or more is 
produced by the condensation of water pumped up from the 
sea. The inhabitants of the city, numbering 8,000 or 10,000, 
and the army of Chile, comprising about 18,000 men, were 
entirely dependent upon the condensing factory, which stood 
near the beach, when Admiral Grau entered the harbor with 
the Peruvian cruiser Huascar. 

Two Chilean gunboats, which had been sent there to sup- 
port the army, immediately ran away, and Grau demanded 
the surrender of the city and the military forces. When his 
demand was refused he repeated it with a warning that, unless 
his terms were accepted he would destroy the condensing- 
works and leave them without water. The Chileans replied 
that he dare not commit so inhuman an act and leave 25,000 



108 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

or 30,000 people to die of thirst. They were familiar with his 
generous and humane disposition and judged him well; 
because, after thinking the situation over, he left the Chilano 
army unharmed at Antefogasta, pursued the two gunboats 
which had run away and sunk them 100 miles up the coast. 

The destruction of the Esmeralda was memorable. She 
was a corvette of about 1,600 tons, commanded by Captain 
Arthur Prat. Getting the Esmeralda into close quarters, and 
her captain refusing to surrender, Admiral Grau struck her 
with his ram and stove a hole in her side. Still Prat refused 
to surrender, and again Grau rammed her, cutting the vessel 
nearly in two. As she struck, Captain Prat saw that his vessel 
(the Esmeralda) must go down, and, calling upon his men to 
follow him, leaped upon the deck of the Huascar, with his 
sword in one hand and his revolver in the other. The two 
vessels were disengaged so quickly and the crew of the 
Esmeralda were so demoralized by the shock, that only one 
man, a seaman, followed the intrepid Prat on board the 
enemy. The latter ran amuck along the deck of the Huascar, 
discharging his revolver into the groups of men, who stood 
paralyzed by his audacity, and when his pistol was empty he 
rushed madly upon them with his sword. 

Admiral Grau sprang from the pilot house, and, with the 
true spirit of a soldier cried out: "Surrender, Captain Prat, 
surrender ! You are alone, and we do not want to take the 
life of so brave a soldier!" But Prat, crazed with excitement, 
attacked the gunners with his sword and was shot down. As 
he fell his sword was thrown from his hand, and, the point 
piercing the deck, the weapon stood upright as if purposely 
so placed. There it remains on the Huascar to-day, having 
never been removed. Admiral Grau, in his admiration for 
the bravery of his enemy, had a box built around it, and since 
the vessel has been in the possession of the Chileans, who soon 
afterward captured her, a glass case has been substituted. 

Not only did Grau thus recognize the courage of his adver- 
sary, but he carefully gathered up everything he could find of 
the belongings of the captain and sent them to his widow in 
Chile, with a noble letter, in which he said : 



THE ZONA SECA OP SOUTH AMERICA 109 

"Captain Prat died a victim to his own excessive intre- 
pidity, in defense of and for the glory of his country. I sin- 
cerely deplore his fate, and in expressing my sympathy wish 
also to declare my admiration for his character and courage." 

The Chilanos had an opportunity to write a similar letter 
to Admiral Grau's widow a few weeks later, for his language 
regarding Prat's death would well describe his own. The 
Huascar was the swiftest vessel on the coast. She was not as 
large and powerful as some of the ironclads of Chile, but was 
easily handled, and Grau was a skillful seaman. He 
attempted with his little vessel to fight the whole fleet of 
Chile, and the battle which ended his life and resulted in the 
capture of the Huascar was one of the fiercest known in the 
annals of marine warfare. The odds were six to one, and 
the Huascar might have escaped capture, but a shell was 
dropped into a temporary roofless conning tower, where 
Admiral Grau was directing her movements, and, exploding, 
blew him to atoms. The explosion disabled the steering gear, 
and although the vessel was helpless, her crew fought until 
all the officers but one lieutenant were killed or wounded. 
Then she surrendered and now belongs to Chile. 

Captain Carvajal, the second in rank, was badly wounded, 
and for many months his life was despaired of, but he finally 
recovered and is now living in Lima on the retired list and 
serving as president of the National Geographical Society. 
Carlos Cisneros is the secretary of that institution. 

Having secured the Huascar and killed the only good naval 
commander the Peruvians had, the Chilanos at once blockaded 
the ports of Peru and invaded her territory with a powerful 
army. 

Admiral Grau was severely censured for not insisting upon 
the surrender of the Chilano army at Antefogasta, and he 
might have taken advantage of the situation to make terms of 
peace, but he gave his life in defense of Peru, and nearly all 
the glory that nation won in the war was gained by his vic- 
tories. After he died the fortunes of the Peruvians seemed to 
change and they suffered nothing but disaster. 



VIII 
THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 

At one time Lima was the most prominent and populous 
city in America, and it was the seat of Spanish power on the 
southern continent for more than three centuries. At first 
the treasures that were stripped from the temples and palaces 
of the Incas gave the Spaniards enormous wealth without 
labor. The number of millions of dollars in silver and gold 
and precious stones that were found in the hands of the 
innocent aborigines is a question of discussion, but nowhere 
else in the world was so large a fund of portable booty ever 
captured. Before that was exhausted the Spaniards discovered 
the mines from which it originally came, and duplicated their 
wealth with little more labor. From 1630 to 1824, according 
to the records, the valley of Cerro de Paco alone produced 
27,200 tons of pure silver under the direction of the Jesuits, 
while other mines in the same neighborhood yielded hundreds 
of millions of dollars, even with the primitive system of work- 
ing that was applied to them by the monks and the native 
Indians. Then, after the mineral period of Peruvian opulence 
was passed, the discovery of guano gave another source of 
riches that was even more productive for two or three genera 
tions. Then came the war, and the devastation by foreign 
invaders and the havoc of domestic revolutions left to Lima 
only the shadow of her former splendor. For nearly twenty 
years the country was depressed and the people suffered 
almost beyond precedent. Industry was almost entirely sus- 
pended, commerce was reduced to a mere trifle compared with 
previous records, and the proud inhabitants lived for several 
years upon the pawnshops. 

A few years of peace have almost restored the appearance 
of the city and offer most encouraging prospects for the 

no 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS in 

future. The devastations of the war have been entirely 
obliterated, the roofless houses have been rebuilt, and those 
that were damaged are repaired and repainted. There is an 
air of freshness and prosperity that is gratifying The shops 
are filled with attractive goods and their counters are lined 
with purchasers. Caravans of carts are passing back and 
forth in the streets. Everybody seems to be employed in use- 
ful occupations, and the faces of the populace, like the walls of 
their houses, wear a pleasant expression. Recovery has come 
slowly and after long suffering, and it is all the more accepta- 
ble and appreciated. 

Pizarro selected the location for Lima, and founded the 
city January 6, 1535, and, as that was the anniversary of the 
manifestation of the Savior to the Magi, he called it the City 
of the Kings. Philip II designed a coat of arms for the infant 
capital — a star upon an azure field over three golden crowns. 
The churches, convents and monasteries of Lima were the 
finest and most costly in America, and the records show that 
$90,000,000 was invested in such means of grace by the early 
authorities. Several of the most imposing churches and two 
or three monasteries have been preserved, but the greater 
number have been destroyed or are badly out of repair. 

While most of the piety is shown by the women of the 
country, they are not allowed to enter churches with their 
bonnets on. It is the custom to wear a manta or mantilla to 
church, and worshipers who enter with a "gorra," as they 
call a bonnet in Spanish, even between the hours of service, 
are immediately ordered out by the sacristan or some of the 
other attendants. The respect usually paid to the members 
of the diplomatic corps does not exempt them from this rule, 
and the wife of an American minister, who was herself a 
catholic, before she learned that fact was turned out of two 
churches because she had a hat upon her head. It is quite as 
much out of place as if a man should wear his hat in a Chicago 
church. All visitors to the Peruvian churches, ladies as well 
as gentlemen, are compelled to uncover their heads as they 
enter the door. 

We witnessed an interesting ceremony at the Cathedral, 



ii2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

when Irving Dempsey Dudley, Jr. , the baby son of the United 
State minister to Peru, who was born on Dewey day, May i, 
1899, was christened, and received the benediction of the 
pope by the hands of Mgr. Gasparri, the papal nuncio. The 
nuncio also occupies the post of apostolic delegate to the 
catholic church in Peru. He is eminent in the hierarchy, is 
recognized for his ability, learning and diplomatic skill, and is 
popular in all classes of society at Lima. Mrs. Dudley is a 
catholic and preferred that her child should be baptized and 
educated in her religion. 

It is not often that the great cathedral is used for such a 
purpose. This venerable building was erected by Pizarro, 
who laid the cornerstone in 1540, and for two or three cen- 
turies was not only considered the most magnificent ecclesias- 
tical edifice in America, but was the recognized center of the 
church on the southern continent. Before its altar the vice- 
roys were crowned; from the residence of the archbishop, 
which was formerly adjacent, many an edict has been prepared 
and issued of political as well as religious importance to the 
American people. Lima witnessed the last gasp of the inqui- 
sition, which was maintained here for a hundred years after it 
was suppressed in Spain, and its headquarters are now occu- 
pied by the senate of the republic. The ceiling of the old 
audience chamber in which the senate now meets is one of the 
most elaborate and exquisite pieces of wood carving in the 
world, and was carved by the monks of the mother country in 
1560. The dungeons in which the heretics were confined and 
the rooms in which they were tortured are now used for the 
clerical force of the upper house of the Peruvian legislature. 
Between the cathedral and the inquisition a close relation 
existed, and the archbishop of Peru was for centuries the 
most influential prelate in America. 

The remains of Pizarro, a rusty skeleton, lie in a glass 
case in one of the altars of the cathedral, and are shown 
to visitors who are willing to pay the requisite fee. They 
ought to have a conspicuous place, for he gave to the 
diocese $9,000,000 in gold and silver that was stripped from 
the Inca temples. 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 113 

Another of the stories told of the cathedral is that in 1661, 
when La Palata, the viceroy, rode from the palace on the 
other side of the plaza to its entrance, the wide street was 
paved with ingots of silver, the hoofs of his horse were shod 
with shoes of solid gold and its mane and tale were strung 
with pearls. 

We went to the cathedral to pay our respects to the remains 
of Pizarro. They lie in a glass coffin, upon a red velvet cush- 
ion, edged with gold cord, and under the skull is a pillow 
incased in the same material. The flesh of the famous con- 
quistador turned to dust several centuries ago, and his skin, 
which is the color of parchment, clings in loose folds to his 
naked bones, which have been "articulated" with wire by 
unskilled hands. The toes have disappeared, and the feet look 
as if they had been chopped off with a hatchet. 

The expression on the countenance of the conqueror of 
Peru was anything but pleasing or peaceful, and in his valiant 
struggles he somewhere lost four of his teeth. His sword lies 
at his left side ready to be unsheathed when Gabriel sounds 
the assembly on the eventful morning. Between his legs is a 
brass tube, in which, the sexton told us, was the evidence of 
the authenticity of the skeleton. A glass jar beneath his feet 
contains what the priest said were his brains, and there was 
a rosary lying beside it, upon which he may have said his 
prayers — and no man ever needed to say them more than he. 
Considerable doubt is cast upon this skeleton because the skull 
bears no mark of the blow that killed Pizarro in 1541, but it 
may have had time to heal since then. 

An American woman who visited Lima several years ago 
claims to have carried off one of Pizarro' s toes, but the popu- 
lar opinion among her fellow-countrymen here is that she was 
humbugged by the sexton, who will readily sell any part of 
Pizarro 's person for an adequate sum of money, and draw on 
the nearest cemetery to fill the order. 

In the little chapel where the remains lie is a large altar of 
solid silver that must have been very costly, and an image of 
the Virgin wearing a golden coronet which weighs several 
pounds. When the Chilean army was in Lima this altar was 



ii 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

whitewashed and thus escaped the fate of all the other precious 
decorations of the cathedral. 

One of the curious social laws of the country forbids women 
to attend funerals, and they do not appear at weddings unless 
they are very intimate friends. 

Peru is the birthplace of the potato, which was used as an 
article of food by the Incas and exported to Europe by the 
Spaniards when they took over quinine bark and named it in 
honor of the Countess of Chincon, whose husband at that time 
was viceroy. The Indians had used the bark for medicinal 
purposes as long as any one could remember, but this noble 
lady was the first European to test its efficacy, and it proved 
so excellent a cure for the malaria which saturates the atmos- 
phere of Lima that she induced the Jesuit fathers to recom- 
mend it to the medicos of the old world. These wise old 
chaps sent it to Spain and Italy, and it is said that one of the 
first doses of quinine ever administered in Europe was swal- 
lowed by the pope. 

The unregenerate potato, which is still found in a wild state 
among the mountains of Peru, is a delicate vine bearing a 
fruit about the size of a plum and as yellow as an orange. 
Cultivation has increased its size and improved its flavor. 

The scientists say that the tomato also originated in Peru, 
and was known among the Incas as a love apple, possessing 
peculiar qualities that influenced the affections. For centuries 
after its discovery the same superstition prevailed in Europe. 

Peru also claims to be the mother of cotton, but I think 
Egypt will dispute that fact. 

About a hundred miles north of Lima, near the town of 
Huacho, is one of the great curiosities of nature — a salt factory 
on an automatic plan. When the tide comes in it fills a lot of 
shallow basins, and the water is prevented from flowing back 
into the sea by closing the gates. The atmosphere is so dry 
that the water evaporates rapidly and leaves a sediment of 
salt in an almost pure state, which is scraped up, packed into 
sacks and shipped to market. Within the coast a little further 
the percolation of sea water through the porous rocks into 
pits and hollows has caused immense deposits of salt to 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 115 

accumulate. The salt is taken out in blocks six or eight 
inches square and sold in that form. As soon as the pit is 
excavated the water comes in again and in a year or two has 
solidified and is ready for the miner. Wells driven into the 
sand disclose strongly impregnated water at a depth of 
twenty-five feet, which seems to be a great deal heavier than 
the sea water, and is drawn off into vats for evaporation. 

The population of Lima is uncertain, as there has been no 
accurate census taken for many years. The peons endeavor 
to avoid enumeration, because they are aware that the census 
lists furnish information for the conscript officers who are 
recruiting the army. But there is supposed to be a popula- 
tion of about 105,000, which is considerably less than that of 
twenty-five years ago. In 1800 there were 65,000 people in 
Lima, and about the time of the declaration of independence 
perhaps 5,000 more. 

Lima was formerly surrounded by a high adobe wall, 
which has been almost entirely removed, and was entered by 
three gates, at which taxes were collected upon every article 
that passed in and out, and head money was required of 
travelers. 

From the foundation of the city in 1535 to the abdication 
of the last viceroy in 182 1, Peru had only forty-three rulers, 
which is an average of about one in every seven years. Since 
independence and the organization of the republic there have 
been sixty-six presidents and dictators and seven councils of 
state, which is an average of a little less than one a year. This 
indicates how uneasy is that head that wears the crown in a 
South American republic. 

In the center of the plaza in Lima is a pretty bronze foun- 
tain that was erected in 1578, a gift from some noble Spaniard, 
and is probably the oldest fountain in America. The oldest 
bridge in America crosses the Rimac River back of the palace. 
It was probably erected about the same time, and was rebuilt 
in 1610. 

In the Plaza de la Constitution is a statue of Bolivar, which 
represents the Washington of South America seated upon a 
rearing horse like Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square at 



n6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Washington, but is much superior in design and execution. 
It was designed and cast by Cadolini at Munich. 

Another beautiful monument of marble near the botanical 
gardens represents Columbus in the garb of a courtier of the 
fifteenth century in the act of presenting a cross to an Indian 
girl who drops an arrow, the symbol of savagery, at his feet. 

When a burglar wants to break into a Peruvian house he 
takes a sponge and a bucket of water and moistens the walls, 
which are covered with only a thin coating of mud, and easily 
dissolve upon the application of moisture. Then when the 
mud is removed, he takes a sharp knife and cuts the strips of 
split bamboo, which serve as a substitute for lath. That easy 
little operation produces a hole in the wall large enough for a 
man to crawl through, and can be performed so silently that 
people sleeping in the house will not be awakened. Not long 
ago the residence of the cable manager at Barranca was 
entered in this way. The thieves frightened the family, but 
were discovered before they had seized much booty. 

They put queer names on the signboards in Peru, evidently 
intended to appeal to the piety of the purchasing public. 
There is a little shop in the lower part of the town which the 
proprietor has christened the "Tienda of the Holy Spirit," 
and a crockery store on the main street bears the sign, "El 
Progreso de la Incarnacion" — the progress of the incarnation. 
A grocery is called "La Estrella de Belen" — the star of Beth- 
lehem. A cantina or saloon near by is named "The Star of 
Destiny" ; a millinery store, "The Lily of Delight" ; while the 
dirtiest drinking place I saw in Peru — and none are clean — 
was called "The Cluster of Camelias. " 

All the native women wear the manta when they go upon 
the street. This is a black shawl folded around the face, over 
the head, across the breast and fastened in the back with a pin. 
This garment is said to have been inherited from the native 
Indian women as the poncho, the familiar blanket with a hole 
for the head cut in the middle, was first used by the Indian 
men. It is claimed that every woman in the great empire, 
which stretched almost from the Isthmus of Panama to the 
Straits of Magellan, abandoned colors and put on black mantas 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 117 

as a badge of perpetual mourning when Atahualpa, "the last 
of the Incas," was strangled by the Spaniards in 1531. There 
is probably some truth in this story, for in the graves of the 
vast Inca cemeteries that have been destroyed by scientific 
investigation and vandalism no black garments are found. 
All the female mummies are wrapped in mantas of brilliant 
colors, which are worn and fastened exactly the same way as 
the present generation is accustomed to fasten them. It is 
rather singular, therefore, that the descendants of the conquis- 
tadores should imitate their victim and perpetuate the signs of 
the sorrow which the Indians were caused by their brutality 
and duplicity. 

The native society is quite exclusive, and social laws are 
rigid, but a foreigner who goes to Lima with good letters of 
introduction will always be cordially received and admitted to 
the best circles. American naval officers are especially wel- 
come, for Peruvian belles are quite as strongly attracted by 
the glitter of brass buttons as their sisters in the United States, 
and Europe; but both the foreign colony and the natives have 
learned by experience that it is well to be shy of strangers 
until their antecedents are ascertained. Too many of our fel- 
low-citizens go there because they have good reasons not to 
stay at home, and it isn't always safe to ask an American down 
in that country what name he bore in the States. 

The social restrictions of ancient times are growing lax in 
Peru, as in other Latin-American countries, because of contact 
with foreigners at home and abroad, although the young 
women are not yet allowed so much freedom as their sisters in 
United States and England. It is still a breach of decorum 
for a lady to receive a gentleman alone until after her mar- 
riage. A young man may call upon his sweetheart, but must 
ask for her mother or her father. If they are at home it is 
proper for him to ask for the daughter also, and he is allowed 
to tell her of his love, but their interview must be in the 
presence of her mother, and when she has consented to accept 
his hand his father and her father make it up between them, 
and the match is announced ; but no contract is required, as in 
France, and money marriages are infrequent, although of 



n8 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

course prudent parents look out for the welfare of their daugh- 
ters with quite as much solicitude as in the United States. 

The men of Peru insist that the women of Lima are the 
most beautiful in the world, and they are very attractive, 
whether you see them in their homes or clad in the black 
manta on the way to mass in the morning. They have won- 
derful eyes, and know how to use them. The manta is a 
square shawl of black China crape, two yards wide, and the 
amount of silk embroidery upon it indicates the wealth of the 
wearer. Although made in China, the manta is the national 
costume of Peru, and is worn by every woman, regardless of 
rank or wealth, whenever she appears on the street. The 
center of the fold is placed upon the forehead, where usually a 
bit of lace hangs down to the eyebrows. One end of the 
manta falls down in front of the dress as far as the knee. The 
other is thrown around the shoulders, drawn closely so as to 
show the outlines of the figure, and fastened in the middle of 
the back with a pin. The girls are slender, short of stature 
and of graceful form, but they lose their beauty of figure with 
maternity. They ripen early, reach the prime of beauty at 16 
or 17, and at 25 begin to take on flesh, which is said to be due 
to their lack of exercise and the excessive use of sweetmeats. 

The dentists say that the bad teeth of the women — and the 
men also, for that matter — in Peru are due to the quantity of 
sugar cane they eat while children, for there is an acid in the 
Peruvian cane which destroys the enamel of the teeth. 

The people of Peru have many curious customs that have 
been handed down from generation to generation of their Span- 
ish ancestors. They seem to cling to them more tenaciously 
than other South American countries. It is still the fashion 
here to have large families, and you frequently find ten, twelve 
and fifteen children of the same mother, whose grandchildren 
often take care of her own babies. An American resident of 
Peru whose wife was a native is said to be the father of twenty- 
eight children. I was introduced one morning to one man who 
has fourteen living children and has buried four. 

I was refused admission to a funeral in one of the churches 
because I was wearing a business suit. The policeman 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 119 

explained politely that my garments were not appropriate to 
a house of mourning. Funereal ceremonies are very 
elaborate. When a member of a household dies the windows 
and doors of the residence are all tightly closed or hung with 
black cloth. The pictures and the mirrors are turned to the 
wall or crape is thrown over them. The arms of the chairs 
are tied with bows of wide black ribbon ; every bit of color and 
ornamentation is concealed, the piano is closed and a black 
ribbon is tied across the lid. Crape is hung in festoons from 
the chandeliers and other gas fixtures, and the vestibule is 
heavily draped in order that callers may understand without 
inquiring that the family are not receiving guests. Every 
member of the family — men, women and children, sisters, 
cousins and aunts sometimes two or three degrees removed — 
puts on black, withdraws from society and shows every outward 
semblance of sorrow for at least a year. The custom of wear- 
ing mourning upon the death of distant relatives is so common 
that many families are never out of crape, and nearly every 
other person you meet wears symbols of sorrow. 

A widow is expected to pass the first thirty days of her 
bereavement in utter silence and secluded from the rest of her 
family. She goes to church in the morning to pray for the 
repose of the soul of her husband, and receives calls of con- 
dolence from her intimate friends in a darkened chamber. 
They remain only a moment in her presence, and, after 
embracing her and shedding a few tears, retire. A bereaved 
husband is not required to show so much grief, but it is not 
customary for him to return to his business until thirty days 
after the funeral, and for a year at least he is debarred from 
the club and other places of familiar association. ' 

In the newspapers there is a column entitled "Defun- 
ciones," in which are announcements reading as follows (I 
take one at random from a morning's paper) : 

"The widow, sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, 
brothers-in-law, grandchildren, nephews, nieces and cousins of 
him who was Dr. Fidel Manuel Carranza (Q. E. P. D.) suppli- 
cate that his late friends will be so gracious as to honor them 
by accompanying the remains from the late residence of the 



izo BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

deceased, Calle Morcedes No. 150, to the general cemetery at 
4 p. m. on the 28th day of July coming-. This attention will 
be gratefully received by his heart-broken widow and his 
bereaved family. ' ' 

Another notice in the same column includes political friends 
and supporters among those in whose name the invitation is 
issued. 

These notices have been preceded by formal announcements 
of death, and, simultaneously with their publication, it is cus- 
tomary to send cards heavily bordered with black lines in a 
corresponding envelope by the hands of a servant dressed in 
deepest mourning to the residences of friends. These private 
announcements bear a heavy black cross instead of a crest or 
other appropriate insignia. Upon the receipt of such an invi- 
tation, etiquette requires that the person to whom it is 
addressed should pay a visit of condolence before the funeral. 
He will be received in a darkened parlor by one of the rela- 
tives, a son or a brother or a nephew, to whom he will express 
his sympathy and of whom he will inquire after the health and 
the welfare of the remainder of the family. The funeral is not 
attended by women, but the gentlemen friends of the family 
will appear in black garments, black gloves, silk hats and 
either black or white neckties — both are en regie. 

They will find the coffin in the principal parlor covered with 
offerings of natural, artificial and metallic flowers. Wreaths 
made of tin are much favored. They are painted green or in 
imitation of dead leaves, and are, of course, imperishable. An 
altar with crucifix, candles and other paraphernalia for the 
service stands at one side of the room, but it is customary to 
have mass said in private in the presence of the widow and 
members of the family before the arrival of the invited guests. 
Each person leaves his card upon a tray which stands near the 
entrance or is held by a footman for that purpose. At the 
hour appointed the coffin is removed to an elaborate hearse, or 
catafalque, which is itself a monument of mourning, drawn by 
four and sometimes by six horses wearing heavy black nets or 
blankets of black velvet that reach almost to the ground and 
long streamers of crape attached to the bridles and other por- 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 121 

tions of their harness. The top of the hearse is ornamented 
with long black plumes, while the wheels are concealed by a 
deep braided fringe. The driver and the footmen who attend 
the hearse are in black livery, and all the attendants of the 
undertaker are dressed in a similar manner. 

At the cemetery it is customary for one of the friends to 
read a brief address of a biographical nature and pronounce a 
eulogy upon the virtues of the deceased. A copy of the man- 
uscript is furnished to the family and another is sometimes 
placed inside the coffin in order that if the remains are ever 
disturbed it may be known that the dead was eminent for 
piety and faithful in friendship. Before the coffin is intrusted 
to the tomb the priest sprinkles it with holy water and reads 
the concluding words of the service. 

After the ceremonies are concluded the eldest son or the 
nearest relative of the deceased stands at the gate of the cem- 
etery and shakes hands with all the gentlemen present, 
expressing in appropriate terms the thanks of the family and 
in return receiving their condolences. 

Before the close of the year of mourning a requiem mass is 
celebrated at the church which the family are in the habit of 
attending. A formal announcement is made in the newspa- 
pers, and cards of invitation are sent to friends and acquaint- 
ances similar to those issued at the time of the funeral. One 
morning, I attended a requiem mass celebrated for the 
Hon. Dr. Fidel Rodriguez Ramirez, a member of the chamber 
of deputies from the city of Caraz, in the northern part of the 
republic. As the expenses were paid by the government the 
ceremonies were of a more elaborate character than usual. A 
regiment of soldiers was drawn up in line upon the streets 
approaching the church, the members of the cabinet, the 
private secretary of the president and several aids-de-camp 
represented the chief magistrate of the nation, who would 
have been present personally if the dead man had been a sen- 
ator instead of a deputy. A requiem mass was sung by the 
regular choir, re-enforced by the members of an opera com- 
pany now under engagement here, and an orchestra of stringed 
instruments. The church was darkened by hanging black 



i22 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

cloth before all the windows, and the only light came from the 
candles on the altar. The members of the senate and the 
house of representatives appeared in what we call evening- 
dress, although the ceremony was at 9 : 30 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, wearing swallow-tail coats, low-cut waist coats and white 
ties, but black gloves. A large number of other gentlemen 
were present in official uniforms or black frock suits. 

Similar arrangements are made for the requiem masses 
sung for the benefit of private individuals. 

I know of no country where the minds of the people are so 
much engaged with their religious duties that the church bells 
are always ringing and processions of women draped in black 
mantas are continually passing to and from the church doors. 
There are seventy-six churches in Lima — one for an average 
of about 1,200 people. 

Archbishop Tovar, who was elected to that diocese in 1899, 
is a young man of modern ideas and progressive tendencies, 
and with the advice and support of the papal nuncio he is 
endeavoring to abolish some of the most absurd of the ancient 
religious customs which are still observed here. He has for- 
bidden the celebration of the feast of St. Peter, which was 
formerly held on June 29 with extraordinary proceedings. 

Until 1899 the fishermen of Chorillos and other towns along 
the coast were in the habit of taking an image of St. Peter, 
who is the patron saint of fishermen, from the altar of his 
church and parading it through the streets with bands of 
music, processions of priests, military and fire companies, 
civil, social and charitable organizations, to the landing place 
at the foot of the bluff, and there transferring it to a hand- 
somely decorated fishing boat. The priest in charge of the 
ceremony, the grand marshal of the procession and a com- 
mittee of citizens got into the boat, which was then rowed 
around the bay while the priests sprinkled holy water upon the 
surface of the water. Having arrived at a certain place a hook 
and line were thrown overboard and the end placed in the hand 
of the image, the head fisherman, or the chairman of the com- 
mittee, holding it behind the saint's back. When he felt a 
bite the line was drawn up through St. Peter's hands, and the 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 123 

fish that was caught was accepted as indicating the character 
of the fishing harvest during the remainder of the year — the 
larger the fish the better luck ahead for those who are in the 
trade that St. Peter followed. 

The saint was then rowed back to the shore, the procession 
was re-formed, and marched around the streets of the city to 
the church, where St. Peter was restored to his altar. In 
1899, as I have said, the ceremony was forbidden throughout 
the entire republic of Peru by the archbishop, because he 
believes that such celebrations are injurious to the morals as 
well as a reflection upon the intelligence of his parishioners, 
many of whom actually believed that few fish would be caught 
that season because the waters were not blessed by St. Peter 
as usual. 

Another reform inaugurated by Archbishop Tovar has been 
the suppression of street processions. It has been customary 
in years past, and as long as any one can remember, for "the 
saints to go visiting, ' ' to use the familiar phrase of the com- 
mon people. On the anniversary of St. Dominic, for example, 
the monks and priests belonging to the order he founded were 
accustomed to take his image from the altar and form a pro- 
cession of military companies, benevolent and religious socie- 
ties, and with music and banners march around the city 
visiting various other churches, whose priests, having been 
notified in advance, would be ready to receive the saint, escort 
him to the altar and celebrate a special mass in his honor, 
while his followers occupied front seats in the sanctuary. 

These processions occurred two or three times in a month, 
and were advocated and defended by the priests on the theory 
that they excited the attention and the interest of the people 
in religious affairs. But the archbishop has forbidden them, 
with the exception of two or three, which have been permitted 
until now, but I am told will not be allowed again. The arch- 
bishop has thought it prudent and politic not to abolish every- 
thing of the kind at once, but to do so gradually. 

The most peculiar of these ceremonies, however, took place 
as usual in 1899. On a certain feast day the monks of the San 
Francisco monastery took the image of their saint and founder 



i2 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

from the altar of the great church, and the Dominican monks 
did the same with the effigy of their founder. Two proces- 
sions were formed with brass bands, military companies and 
civil organizations as usual, and after parading through the 
principal streets they met in the main plaza in front of the 
cathedral, where the two saints exchanged greetings and 
addresses were delivered in their behalf by representatives of 
the respective monastic orders. 

Formerly the archbishop appeared on this occasion in his 
richest ecclesiastical robes and conferred his blessing upon the 
assembled crowds, which were composed of the most intelli- 
gent and highly educated people of the city. But that class no 
longer recognizes the ceremony, and Archbishop Tovar ignored 
it. He intends to prohibit it entirely, and his policy will be 
to gradually eliminate from the diocese under his jurisdiction 
all these antiquated and absurd customs and reorganize the 
church in Peru upon the North American plan. This, how- 
ever, is going to be a difficult task for the ambitious and pro- 
gressive young man, because the ignorant classes are devoutly 
attached to what appear preposterous mummeries to the edu- 
cated portion of the community. 

In all parts of South America wooden crosses are still 
erected on the outskirts of the towns and villages to frighten 
away evil spirits. They are also erected along the highway 
where people have met with death by violence or accident, and 
pious travelers are expected to say a prayer for the repose of 
the dead as they pass. 

You often see small effigies of the Virgin or the saints 
placed in niches in the walls or residences both in the city and 
the country. These represent vows made by the owner or the 
people of the household when they were ill or in trouble. 

Persons who are very religious are called "fanaticos" and 
"beatas." The latter term is used especially to describe a 
woman who has made a vow to her patron saint or to the Holy 
Virgin to deprive herself of some luxury or comfort, or per- 
form some religious duty either voluntarily or as a penance 
for sin. For instance, a servant who once attended to our 
rooms had made a vow never to wear shoes, and is going 



THE CITY OF THE THREE KINGS 125 

barefooted the rest of her life. For that reason she is known 
as a "beata. " 

Servants usually go in droves, and when you hire a butler 
or major-domo, or master of the household, he becomes a sort 
of general manager of the entire establishment. He hires and 
dismisses the cook, the chambermaids and other servants, and 
is responsible for their good behavior. Many families board 
with their major-domo, and arrange with him to maintain the 
household, provide the food, fuel, and the servants, and every- 
thing else except the fixed charges for rent, water rates, gas 
bills, wine and similar outside luxuries at a given rate per 
month. This is not only a measure of convenience but of 
economy, and people are thus protected against dishonesty and 
extravagance in their kitchens and pantries. A cook usually 
feels at liberty to bring her husband and all her children to 
the house where she is employed, and lodges and feeds them 
at the expense of her employer. The husband may work 
elsewhere, but he sleeps and takes his meals wherever his wife 
lives. 

Each detachment of the army of Peru is accompanied by 
women called "rabonas," who are the temporary wives of the 
soldiers without the intervention of the priests. They carry 
the camp equipage and cooking utensils, cook the food and 
wash the garments of the soldiers, attend the sick and the 
wounded, and are said to be remarkably skillful in making 
concoctions of herbs for malarial fevers and other diseases 
which prevail in the army. During a battle they plunder the 
dead of the enemy as well as take charge of the wounded of 
the command to which they belong. They receive no pay, 
but rations and transportation are furnished them by the gov- 
ernment. 

Among other of the curious customs in Peru which one 
learns by experience is that the hackmen charge double price 
if the top of the carriage is let down. It is the same carriage, 
the same pair of horses and the same coachman, the same dis- 
tance and the same time ; but if you fancy riding with the top 
down so that you can see things you will have to pay 2 sols an 
hour, or 60 cents a mile. Whereas if you are willing to take 



iz6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

things as you find them and have the carriage closed the price 
is only i sol an hour, or 30 cents a mile. Santiago Flores, 
whose name translated into English means James Flower, an 
estimable citizen of the United States, of African descent, who 
secures the patronage of most Americans that come here, 
explained that the difference in the charge was due to the fact 
that people "get more benefit" riding in an open carriage 
than in one that is closed, and ought to pay accordingly. 



IX 
PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 

Peru has had several years of peace, and shows the effects 
very plainly in an improved commerce, an enlarged business, 
the development of new industries, the introduction of many 
enterprises that promise prosperity, and in the general appear- 
ance and contentment of the people. This indicates what 
might happen in that land of marvelous riches if peace could 
only be permanent. The frequent revolutions in the past have 
kept out capital, have reduced the laboring population by 
death faster than they were born, and has caused a distrust 
that has made business of all kinds unprofitable. During the 
eighty years since Peru achieved her independence, she has 
had more presidents than there were viceroys and governors 
throughout the whole colonial period, and it is asserted that 
only two of them were legally elected. General Pierola, whose 
authority expired on the eighth of September, 1899, is one of 
the few presidents who was allowed to serve out his term of 
four years. He had been dictator on several occasions, and 
was an habitual revolutionist for twenty years, until after a 
civil war that disturbed the country for nearly two years, he 
finally realized his ambition and became the chief magistrate 
of his country. Pireola made an excellent president, as every- 
body testifies. He surprised his enemies and disappointed his 
friends because he did not allow his supporters to enrich them- 
selves through the public revenue or by official influences and 
favors, which made his administration unique. Until his suc- 
cessor took charge of the government and found an empty 
treasury it was supposed that Pierola was honest, but an 
explanation of the disappearance of a trust fund and the antici- 
pation of the customs receipts for three months is still neces- 
sary to clear his record. 

It is also admitted by his severest critics that if he had 

127 



128 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

kept his hands off the election machinery when his successor 
was chosen his administration would have stood as an exam- 
ple for future good presidents to imitate. But through the 
advice of unwise friends he allowed himself to abolish the 
highest electoral tribunal or returning board which the sta- 
tutes provide for the protection of the polls and to review the 
returns from the several provinces. 

This board is composed of nine members, and is known as 
the Junta Nacional Electoral. The president appoints one 
member, the senate two, and the house two, representing 
opposing political parties, and the judges of the superior courts 
four. In this board as appointed to review the returns of the 
last presidential election, the supporters of the government 
candidate, Senor Romana, were in a minority. A quarrel 
occurred among them. Some people assert that it was inten- 
tional in order to give the president a pretext to abolish the 
tribunal, and the returns of the provincial officials were 
declared final by an arbitrary decree. 

That was a serious mistake, for it not only established a 
bad precedent and injured the reputation of the president for 
honesty and fairness, but gave the opposing party and the 
malcontents throughout the country an excuse to question the 
legality of Romana' s title. 

The defeated candidate, SeSor Billinghurst, is the son of an 
Englishman by a Peruvian mother, a man of great wealth 
invested in nitrate mines and other profitable industries. He 
was first vice president of Peru under Pierola. He was the 
principal financial backer of the revolution which brought 
Pierola into power, and is believed to have advanced that 
leader eighty or ninety thousand dollars to pay his personal 
expenses. He expected to succeed to the presidency, and was 
bitterly disappointed when Pierola brought out Eduardo 
Romana as a candidate. There were frequent rumors that 
Billinghurst would use violence to prevent the inauguration of 
his rival, and it was generally believed that he inspired several 
harmless insurrections that took place in different parts of the 
country, but he denied all responsibility for them, and says 
that he has foresworn politics forever. 




Eduardo Lopez de Romano, President of Peru. 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 129 

Pierola was educated for the priesthood in a Lima "sem- 
inario" or theological school not far from the old palace of 
Pizarro, but before taking orders he spent several years in 
France and became a soldier. While he has not shown open 
hostility to the United States, Pierola cannot forget that our 
government refused to recognize him in 1881 when he declared 
himself dictator and assumed the presidency of Peru. The 
Garfield administration recognized the authority of President 
Calderon, a rival, at that time, and did what it could to sustain 
him in power. During the war with Spain El Tiempo, a news- 
paper of Lima, which is owned by Pierola and is regarded 
as the organ of his political party, continually expressed a par- 
tisanship for the Spaniards, and has been quite severe in its 
criticisms of the policy of the United States. It has also shown 
a spirit of hostility toward American interests, and while 
Pierola himself has always professed a friendly disposition he 
could have changed the tone of his newspaper merely by a nod. 

There are three political parties in Peru, the democratic 
party, of which Pierola is the chief, and which assumes to be 
the friend of the common people ; the civilista, of which Man- 
uel Candamo, a rich merchant, is the leader, whose platform 
opposes the domination of the military element in the gov- 
ernment, and the constitutional party, of which Gen. Caceras, 
recently president and now an exile, is the head. The latter 
party, however, is practically dissolved. 

There is very little difference in the three parties in respect 
to principles, except perhaps in the civilista faction. Most of 
the presidents of Peru have been soldiers and have gained 
power by the support of the army. They have been prac- 
tically military dictators, and out of the opposition to this cus- 
tom the civilista party has grown. It demands an entire 
separation of military and political affairs. It insists that the 
army shall have nothing to do with the elections, and that its 
officers shall stick to their duties and not seek civil appoint- 
ments. Its principal supporters are found among the mercan- 
tile and professional classes. Its leader, Mr. Candamo, is in 
many respects the most influential man in Peru. He is presi- 
dent of the senate, and exercises great power in congress. 



i 3 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

He is president of the chamber of commerce, and equally- 
prominent in commercial affairs. He is also interested in 
manufacturing enterprises, in banking and in the foreign 
trade. He might have been president several times, and was 
proposed as a candidate in the place of Roman a at the last 
election, but persistently declined on the plea that his large 
private interests require his attention. At the last election in 
1899 both the democrats and the civilistas supported Romana, 
and without Mr. Candamo's assistance he would not have been 
elected. 

There is also a difference of opinion as to the effect of 
national prosperity upon revolutionary movements. Some 
people argue that the increase of wealth and industrial activity 
will furnish the sinews of war to the discontented, and enable 
them to raise armies to overthrow the existing power. But 
wiser men take the ground that prosperity always breeds con- 
tentment, and that when men are busy making money and the 
working classes are earning good wages they take less interest 
in politics and are more reluctant to create disturbances. 
Peru has not been so prosperous for a quarter of a century as 
now, and if the period of peace which has continued for four 
years can be prolonged there is a promise that the abundant 
natural wealth of the country may be utilized and permanent 
peace preserved. 

Arequipa is the home and the birthplace of Senor Don 
Eduardo Lopez de Ramona, the president of Peru, and the 
second civilian who has been elevated to that office. The 
other was Manuel Pardo, who is known in history as "the 
civil president, ' ' and the founder of the civilista party. Voting 
is done on Sunday. The polls are in charge of the troops 
whose officers act as judges of election. At the palace of the 
president in Lima there was always a military guard, and he was 
followed wherever he went by a staff of aids who wore hand- 
some uniforms and made an imposing display. Whoever had 
command of the army, therefore, controlled the policy of the 
country, as well as the government 

Pardo attempted to abolish all this while he was president 
and maintain civil government. He employed civilians in 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 131 

every capacity. He dismissed the military guards around his 
office and the other headquarters of the government, and 
never accepted a military escort. But the supremacy of the 
civil party was of brief existence, for Pardo was assassinated 
by a soldier in 1878, while he was entering the senate cham- 
ber. As Pardo entered the door the sergeant of the guard 
raised a musket and shot him through the back. He fell dead 
in the corridor. The sergeant was arrested, and although he 
boasted that he committed the deed in personal revenge for 
some fancied injury it was generally believed that he was the 
tool of a political conspiracy, but after a long and searching 
investigation no evidence was disclosed, and the sergeant 
alone suffered, being executed in the plaza. 

Pardo was the best president Peru ever had. It was dur- 
ing his administration that the country made its greatest prog- 
ress, and if he had been spared, the war with Chile, which 
brought so great disaster, might have been averted. His suc- 
cessor, Prado, who provoked that conflict, deserted his country, 
abandoned his responsibilities and fled to Paris when he real- 
ized the predicament of his country, and that gave a chance 
for Pierola, the recent executive, to assert his strong char- 
acter and apply his irresistible energy to the affairs of state. 

Romana is the same sort of a president that Pardo was. He 
is a civil engineer by profession, and takes as little interest in 
politics as in military affairs, which is a distinguishing charac- 
teristic in a country where politics has absorbed the attention 
of the people to a degree that has been seriously detrimental 
to its commercial and material interests. But what distin- 
guishes Romana more than anything else is that he was not a 
candidate for the presidency and did not seek the office — a fact 
absolutely unique in the history of the South American repub- 
lics. I do not recall another instance. 

Romana springs from an old Basque family of Spain, and 
his ancestors came to Peru from the province of Biscay about 
the middle of the last century. The Basques are the proudest 
and they claim to be the purest race in the world. They declare 
that they are descended direct from Adam through Tubal 
Cain; that they escaped the flood by early emigration from 



i 3 2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Syria to the north of Spain, and that they speak the same lan- 
guage that was spoken in Eden. They are, no doubt, the 
most vigorous of all the Spanish races, both mentally and 
intellectually, and their descendants have been the most pro- 
gressive and prosperous in the new world. 

Romana's family always have been planters in the neigh- 
borhood of Arequipa. They have large sugar estates at 
Tambo, down on the seacoast near Mollendo, and extensive 
sheep and cattle ranches in the mountains west of this city. 
They are rich, aristocratic and highly educated. At present 
the family consists of two brothers and two sisters. One of 
the brothers, who recently died, Don Juan de Romana, was a 
famous scientist. He was instrumental in securing the loca- 
tion of the Harvard observatory at Arequipa, and was an 
intimate friend of the astronomers. Alejandro, the second, is 
an active politician, has occupied a seat in the senate, has 
been a member of the cabinet, governor of the province of 
Arequipa, and has held other eminent and influential offices. 
It was he who opposed the civil marriage law so bitterly, and 
resigned from the cabinet because Pierola declined to veto it 
a second time. He is now a member of the senate from 
Arequipa. Eduardo, the president, is more liberal in his views. 

All three of the Romana brothers were educated in Stony- 
hurst, the Jesuit college of England. Eduardo was born in 
1847, and entered there a mere lad in 1859, where he took 
prizes for superiority in Greek and for good conduct. In 1868, 
he entered Kings College of London University, and spent 
three years in the study of engineering. Upon his graduation 
he was employed for several years in the office of the North- 
ern State railways of India, and afterward as inspector of 
bridges at Silvertown, and in railway construction, with his 
headquarters at Whitby. He was then sent to Brazil as a 
divisional engineer by the Public Works Construction Com- 
pany, and was engaged for two years in surveying a line for a 
railroad around the cascades in the upper Amazon under the 
direction of George Earl Church. Of the thirty-three foreign 
engineers employed on that work all but nine died from the 
effects of the climate. 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 133 

Returning to England Mr. Romana was received as an 
associate of the Institute of Civil Engineers, which admits 
very few foreigners, and he is the only Peruvian who ever 
received that honor. After traveling through Europe to 
inspect various engineering works he was called home to 
Arequipa on account of the death of his father, to take charge 
of the family estate, which occupied him until the war with 
Chile in 1881, when he volunteered and served as comman- 
dante at Mollendo. 

After the war Mr. Romana returned to the family residence 
in Arequipa, and has since been occupying his time in the 
construction of public works, for which he has accepted no 
compensation. He built the gas works, the water works, a 
large bridge and several public buildings for the municipality, 
the provincial government and the church, and superintended 
the establishment of the electric light plant in Arequipa. 
Everything in the way of modern improvements there can be 
attributed to his enterprise and engineering skill, but it was 
all done from patriotic motives. He has consistently declined 
to accept office or remuneration. 

In 1895, after Caceras was overthrown, General Pierola 
appealed to the Romana brothers to assist him in the redemp- 
tion of the country, and from patriotic motives Eduardo con- 
sented to accept a nomination for congress, where he served 
one year and was elected vice-president of the chamber of 
deputies. Since then unsought honors have been rapidly 
thrust upon him. During his second year in politics he was 
appointed minister of public works in the cabinet of President 
Pierola. The third year he was elected to the senate, and the 
fourth year he was made president. 

"I have never sought an office," said Senor Romana, one 
day while we were discussing political affairs in Peru. "I 
entered politics very reluctantly, and entirely from a sense of 
duty, and I have endeavored to serve my country without 
ambition or the hope of reward. I much prefer a quiet life 
with my books and estates and the limited professional engage- 
ments that have heretofore occupied a portion of my time, but 
I am opposed to military rule, and when I was appealed to as 



i 3 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

a civilian to become a candidate for the presidency I consented 
more from the fear that some soldier might be selected if I 
declined than from any other reason. 

"I am free to have my way, more free than any other presi- 
dent we have ever had, because of the manner in which I came 
into the office. I had no obligations to pay, no pledges to 
fulfill, no friends to reward, no enemies to punish. My hands 
are entirely free to do whatever I see is for the welfare of my 
country, and I do not belong to any political organization, 
although my sympathies are with the democratic element. 

"We would like the United States to give us a little more 
attention," said Senor Romana. "We want more intimate 
relations commercially and socially. We should have direct 
communication by steamship between the two countries so that 
commerce could follow its natural lines. I understand that 
the British and Chilean steamship companies on the west 
coast are going to send their vessels, which now stop at Pan- 
ama, as far as San Francisco, which will give us direct com- 
munication with at least one of your ports, but it seems a pity 
that our transportation facilities should be left in the hands of 
foreigners. We are very fond of the United States down 
here," he continued. "I am a great admirer of the enter- 
prise of your people and the liberality of your institutions, and 
want to be in closer touch with them. ' ' 

"Would you favor a reciprocity treaty?" I asked. 

"Yes, I think it would be a good thing for both countries if 
a reciprocity treaty were negotiated as soon as our commerce 
will justify it. We cannot afford to spare any revenues at 
present, however. We require for the necessities of our gov- 
ernment every dollar that we can collect in our custom houses, 
but I am disposed to think that a reciprocity treaty wisely 
drawn would increase instead of diminish our income, and 
at the same time encourage our industries and our commerce." 
According to the custom in this part of the world, Mr. 
Romana has a large family — nine children — four sons and five 
daughters, the eldest of whom are young men and young 
women of high ambitions and literary culture. At Arequipa 
he lives in an old-fashioned house, where his family have 




Pearl-Divers, Panama Bay. 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 135 

resided for several generations, and is the happy possessor of 
a large library, including an admirable collection of English 
and American works. He shows with pride the handsomely 
bound volumes that were won by him as prizes when he was 
a schoolboy. Professor Bailey, who is director of the Har- 
vard observatory there, is one of Mr. Romana's most intimate 
friends. They have known each other intimately for several 
years, and Mr. Bailey has the highest admiration for him. 

The legality of Senor Romana's election was questioned in 
the Peruvian congress on the ground that President Pierola 
abolished the High Court of Review, and that the returns 
were therefore irregular. Out of a population of more than 
2,000,000 inhabitants but 58,285 votes were cast, of which 
Romana received 55,908, regardless of the returning board. 
The votes he did not receive were scattered among a number 
of candidates, the opposition not being able to concentrate 
upon any one. There was no doubt of his election, but Presi- 
dent Pierola' s arbitrary action gave the minority an oppor- 
tunity to enter a protest, and there was a long and excited 
discussion in congress, during which Mr. Romana maintained a 
dignified serenity and indifference. 

President Romana took his seat in the gloomy old Palace 
Pizarro under the most embarrassing but at the same time the 
most hopeful circumstances. He was received with compar- 
atively little enthusiasm because he was practically an unknown 
man and had never sought personal popularity. He was a 
comparative stranger to the politicians of Peru, who did not 
know whether it was for their interest to shout for or against 
him. He had no clique, no political clubs, and no organiza- 
tion behind him. His inaugural address, however, created a 
distinct and favorable impression both upon congress and the 
public, for it displayed a modest candor that people were not 
accustomed to. 

He offered amnesty to all political offenders who would 
pledge themselves to keep the peace, obey the laws and 
respect the authority of the government, and invited all exiles 
to return to their homes and assist him in an honest effort to 
serve the general welfare. Immediately after his inaugura- 



136 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

tion he made his words good by sending a mutual friend to 
offer an olive branch to General Caceres, the former presi- 
dent, who was overthrown by Pierola and was an exile at the 
city of Tacna. General Caceres, having been deprived of 
power by a revolution was supposed to be plotting to secure 
his restoration by similar means. When he fled from Lima 
he was the commander-in-chief of the army. After his 
departure and in his absence he was tried by court-martial for 
treason and acquitted, so that he still holds the highest mili- 
tary rank in the republic and has never forfeited his commis- 
sion. President Romana reminded him of that fact and 
invited him to return to Lima and resume command of the 
army, offering him the full power of his rank and back pay 
since he left the country. This was not only generous, but 
an audacious act on the part of the president, which can only 
be appreciated by people familiar with the character and 
career of Caceres, who has been a disturbing element in the 
politics of the country for more than twenty years, and in a 
state of continual rebellion except during such times as he has 
occupied the presidential office. To place him in command of 
the army and the defenses of the country and to give him 
control of all the munitions of war seemed sure to invite 
another insurrection, but President Romana was confident 
that Caceres would respect and justify the trust reposed in 
him if he were invited to assume his legitimate place at the 
head of the army. He realized that there was a great risk, 
but had the nerve to take it. 

But General Caceres, unaccustomed to such candor and 
generosity, declined to accept the olive branch and return to 
Lima. He could not comprehend the motives of an honorable 
man. He is so accustomed to conspiracy, intrigue and duplic- 
ity that he suspected a trap and evidently feared that he would 
be arrested and shot as soon as he arrived at the Capital. 
President Romana, however, attempted to reassure him and 
induce him to return, and at least made a favorable impression 
upon the followers of Caceres and upon the public generally, 
and confirmed his promises to inaugurate a conciliatory 
policy. Other exiles accepted the proclamation of amnesty 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 137 

and returned home. At the same time the new president 
ordered the removal and punishment of several officials who 
had long been feared and complained of, but held their places 
because of some political pull on the previous administration. 

This was a novelty to Peru, where the governors of states 
and petty officials have been pretty sure of retention as long 
as they were loyal to their chief. There were several revolu- 
tionary movements in different parts of the country, but none 
of them assumed serious importance. They were led by 
disaffected politicians and irresponsible adventurers for the 
purpose of punishing or frightening the new president. They 
collected a company of followers, found arms and ammunition 
and raided around the country, whooping and shooting, steal- 
ing cattle and horses, robbing banks and haciendas, and issuing 
proclamations calling upon the poeple to rise and follow them 
in a movement to overthrow the government. 

President Romana was seriously embarrassed upon assum- 
ing office to find an empty treasury. The last dollar was 
drawn out before the close of business on the day preceding 
his inauguration, and one of the latest checks was to the private 
secretary of President Pierola. Not only was the treasury 
empty, ^but warrants were issued for payments that would 
absorb all the estimated revenues until January 1 three months 
in advance, leaving the new administration entirely destitute 
during that period. But what was even more serious was the 
discovery that a trust fund amounting to $800,000, the pro- 
ceeds of a tax on salt which was authorized for the purpose of 
raising money to pay Chile for the restoration of the Tarapaca 
desert, held by the latter government since the war of 18 81, 
had been drawn out and used for some purpose unknown. 
The minister of finance, when interrogated on the subject in 
the chamber of deputies, admitted that he could give no 
explanation ; he could only say that the money had been drawn 
out by order of the president, and was not familiar with the 
details of its disbursement. The matter was referred to a 
committee of inquiry, which did not do anything. The 
defenders of the late administration were quite positive that 
the funds were used to construct a cart road to reach the coffee 



138 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

regions and mining camps on the eastern slope of the Andes ; 
others explained that it was needed for putting down a rebel- 
lion at Iquitos, in the Amazon country, but as there has been 
no official explanation and the construction of such a cart road 
as described is not known to the public, the mystery remains 
unsolved and the people are allowed to draw their own infer- 
ences. With the assistance of Mr. Candamo, president of the 
chamber of commerce, and Mr. Aspillago, president of the Insti- 
tute Tecnico, President Romana was able to borrow upon his 
personal credit a sufficient sum of money to meet the emer- 
gency and keep the wheels in motion for the time being; but 
it was rather a novel situation for the new president to be 
compelled to pay the expenses of the government out of his 
own pocket. 

It became necessary for President Romana at an early day 
to declare his policy on the most important of all political 
questions in Peru, that of the relation between church and 
state, and he met the crisis with modest courage and 
composure. 

He came into office with a reputation of being what they 
call a "fanatico" — that is, a religious devotee, an extreme 
churchman who subordinates everything to his religion — as his 
brother is. He was the church candidate for the presidency, 
and had the ardent support of the clergy throughout the 
country, which led the liberal element of the population to 
fear that he would surrender the control of affairs to the 
priests. This impression prevailed so generally that there 
was a decided sensation when the newspapers announced that 
President Romana had accepted an invitation from the Italian 
colony to participate in a celebration they had planned for 
September 20, the anniversary of the overthrow of the tem- 
poral authority of the pope, and the establishment of civil gov- 
ernment at Rome. Archbishop Tovar and Mgr. Gaspari, the 
papal nuncio, hurried to the palace to obtain a contradiction of 
the report, but to their amazement the president confirmed it. 
They entered a solemn protest on the ground that such an act 
would be considered a repudiation of the church. 

Mr. Romana replied that it was not susceptible of any such 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 139 

construction. The origin of the holiday had no significance to 
him. It was customary for each of the foreign colonies at 
Lima to have a celebration during the course of the year and 
for the president of the republic to attend them. The Ger- 
mans celebrated the birthday of their kaiser and the English 
the birthday of their queen, the French the anniversary of the 
fall of the Bastile, the citizens of the United States the Fourth 
of July, and the Italians had selected the 20th of September 
for their fiesta. They comprised a large and important portion 
of the population, larger than any other foreign colony in 
Peru, and he had accepted their invitation for the same reason 
that he had accepted one from the Chilean colony two days 
before to celebrate the anniversary of their independence. He 
intended no reflection upon the pope or the church ; he was 
too loyal a churchman to be suspected of such a thing, but he 
was president of Peru, and not an official of the church or 
subject to ecclesiastical authority in the performance of his 
duties. This firmness and liberality was unexpected, but 
brought to the cordial support of President Romana the liberal 
classes of the population and the commercial element, which 
had hitherto distrusted him. 

Like her nearest neighbor, the republic of Ecuador, the 
government of Peru has adopted a gold standard and the cur- 
rency is now issued on that basis. The sol, a silver coin which 
until recently has been the standard, is accepted at or near its 
actual bullion value — or a ratio of about 32 to 1 — and is 
redeemable for 50 cents in gold, although it contains the same 
amount of silver as the standard dollar of the United States, 
the sucre of Ecuador and the yen of Japan. The libre, which 
contains the same amount of gold as the pound sterling, or 
$4.87 in United States money, is the standard. Ten silver 
soles make one libre, ten reals make one sol. The coinage of 
silver has been stopped. The mint is entirely occupied in the 
coinage of gold. Paper money is obsolete. The common cur- 
rency is still silver, which is awkward and inconvenient, but 
the new gold coins are gradually coming into circulation as 
the volume increases, although they are still held at a slight 
premium which is due more to their convenience and their 



i 4 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

scarcity than to any other reason. There are no banks in the 
interior, and the use of checks, or "chits," that are so common 
in the eastern countries, is almost unknown. The traveler 
who is going into the interior for pleasure or for business is 
compelled to carry coin with him, and if he takes silver he has 
to hire an extra horse. Therefore there is an active demand 
for gold, and the people who need it are willing to pay some- 
thing for the advantage it brings them. 

Peru has had a remarkable experience with its currency. 
The people know all about fiat money, for after the war 
with Chile and at other times when revolutions have been 
under way, the country has been flooded with irredeemable 
paper, which has often passed current as low as two, three, and 
four cents on the dollar. The most serious crisis in the finan- 
cial history of Peru followed the war with Chile in 1881. The 
government had issued millions of dollars in paper currency to 
pay the soldiers and to purchase supplies for them, and, not- 
withstanding the desperate efforts that were made to sustain 
its value, it kept growing weaker and weaker, until finally 
merchants and marketmen refused to take it even at a discount 
of 95 per cent. 

President Pierola, who was dictator, issued a decree declar- 
ing the paper currency legal tender for all transactions, and 
threatening imprisonment and other penalties to tradesmen 
who refused it. At the same time the government insisted 
upon the payment of custom duties and other taxes in coin, 
and as long as it would not accept its own money the mer- 
chants concluded to follow its example. Three or four were 
arrested under the decree and thrown into prison. The 
remainder marked up their goods sufficiently to cover the 
discount, and demanded $2 a pound for beef, 75 cents a pound 
for sugar, and $100, instead of $5, for a pair of boots. 

When Pierola went out of power there was some slight 
improvement, for a "constitutional" president was inaug- 
urated, congress was called together, and a serious effort was 
made to reorganize the government and the finances. But the 
reform did not last a great while, and the paper money was 
still a heavy load to carry. 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 141 

Finally Antero Aspillago, the secretary of the treasury, 
who is now president of the Institute Technico, decided to 
knock the dragon in the head. The government did not want 
to make a record of repudiation, but there were other ways to 
get rid of the obnoxious currency. The opportunity came 
when the intendente of Callao was called upon to arrest a 
merchant of that city for refusing to accept payment for a pur- 
chase in paper money. He telegraphed to Lima for instruc- 
tions. Aspillago telegraphed back that the police authorities 
had nothing to do with the case and must not interfere. This 
ruling was instantly published over the entire republic, and 
solved the problem in a few days, for if people could not be 
arrested for refusing to take the fiat money, of course they 
would refuse. So the merchants throughout Peru, with one 
accord, demanded silver or gold from every purchaser, and the 
government turned its back and closed its eyes. 

The banks had long ago declined to accept paper money on 
deposit. There was a small riot at the market in Lima because 
the hucksters would not receive paper in payment for meat, 
potatoes and bread, but the police refused to interfere, and in 
a few days the public settled down to the conviction that paper 
money was entirely worthless. Some demonstrative persons 
made bonfires of the currency in the plazas, but people gen- 
erally accepted the situation without protests or objections, and 
paper currency became obsolete in Peru. 

Since then silver sols have been the circulating medium. 
The mints were kept busy coining money for the miners at the 
rate of about $40,000 a week, and the coins were exported 
in order to evade an export tax on bar silver, which was 5 per 
cent of its value. There was no export tax on coin, and the 
fee of the mint was 3 per cent, so that those who took advan- 
tage of this method made a profit of 2 per cent. About 
$500,000 in silver is absorbed by the people of the interior 
every year. Much of it is used to manufacture ornaments. 
More is buried in the ground for safe-keeping, because there 
are no banks and the tax-gatherers are always on the lookout 
for their prosperous fellow-townsmen. As long as people have 
nothing it is no use to assess them for taxes or call upon them 



142 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

for parish dues, and therefore when a peon gets hold of an 
extra silver dollar he hides it as quick as he can. 

After the fall in the price of silver and the close of the India 
mints the miners of Peru looked for copper and have made a 
great deal of money from that metal. The silver coined and 
exported as I have described paid the expense of operation and 
transportation, and the proceeds of the sale of the copper have 
been all "velvet." Nearly all the mines that are in reach of 
transportation facilities have continued operations. Backus & 
Johnston, two Americans from Cleveland, O., have established 
large modern smelters at Clasapalca, near the terminus of the 
famous Oroya railroad. The smelters are under the direction 
of Mr. Henry Guyer, who came here from Montana two or 
three years ago. They have been shipping large quantities of 
silver and copper both to Europe and the United States. The 
total exports in 1898 were $9,481,213, which was an increase 
from $6,448,567 the previous year. 

When the mints were closed to silver coinage in 1897, it is 
estimated that there were 4,500,000 silver sols in circulation, 
and a decree was issued prohibiting the importation of those 
that had been shipped out of the country. 

The single standard law was the result of persistent and 
long-continued efforts on the part of Manuel Candamo, presi- 
dent of the chamber of commerce and leader of the civilista 
party; Miro Quesada, editor of El Comercio, the oldest and 
most influential newspaper on the west coast, and other men 
of their stamp. They failed several times in congress, but 
finally got the law through the chamber of deputies by one 
majority. The senate was always with them. Of course there 
was decided opposition, chiefly from the haciendados and 
other persons producing merchandise for export. They paid 
silver for wages and received gold for their produce, and they 
feared the effect of the legislation. Many politicians also pre- 
dicted that the adoption of a gold standard would be the ruin 
of Peru and used the same arguments in favor of the free 
coinage of silver that are familiar to us in the United States. 

The result was a surprise to all classes. Values in the 
local markets have not been disturbed, and wages have not 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 143 

changed. The laborers on the plantations and the mechanics 
in the manufacturies are still paid in silver sols at the same 
rates that prevailed before the law was passed. The butchers 
and bakers and hucksters sell their food for the same price and 
accept the same money. The only difference is an increase in 
the cost of imported goods. They were paid for in gold and 
sold for gold prices before the law was passed, just as they are 
now, but the government now requires customs duties to be 
paid in gold, and that is practically an increase of 100 per cent 
from the time when they were paid in silver. The change in 
the financial system has, however, acted as a stimulant to the 
investment of foreign capital, and has considerably improved 
the credit of the government abroad. The value of silver has 
been maintained, and sols have not fluctuated more than 3 or 
4 per cent at the outside. 

The revenues of the government show a decided increase, 
as may be seen by the following statement : 

189S $ 6,034,594 

1896 10,703,023 

1897 12,172,506 

1898 14,318,312 

It will be interesting to know the sources of the Peruvian 
revenue, which were as follows for 1898: 

Customs duties $6,726,871 

Licenses and concessions .... 3,000,926 

Tax on salt 569,718 

Rent of wharves 64,740 

Various taxes 319,482 

Telegraph tolls 36,186 

Postal receipts 254,471 

Miscellaneous receipts 253,391 

The telegraph tolls are for messages sent over the land 
lines, which are owned by the government. The small postal 
receipts are an index to the intelligence of the people. At 
least 80 per cent, including almost the entire laboring popula- 
tion outside of the cities, are illiterate. The total population 
is estimated at 2,622,000, of whom about 300,000 are wild 



144 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Indians occupying the forests on the eastern slopes of the 
mountains. 

The foreign trade of Peru also shows a remarkable increase. 
In 1898 the imports were $19,297,272, and the exports $30,274,- 
775, making a total of $49,572,048. The coasting trade 
amounted to $27,095,938, making a total of $76,667,986, an 
increase of $10,521,497 from the previous year. 

The imports into Peru consisted of the following classes of 
articles in 1898: 

Cotton goods $4,067,668 

Woolen goods 1,376,643 

Linen goods 259,228 

Silk goods 293,509 

Lumber and furniture 1,273,244 

Iron and steel 8,456,067 

Provisions and other food products . 2,261,453 

Wines and liquors 5°9,758 

Drugs and medicines 799,797 

There was an increase in every class of articles except 
woolen goods, which fell off $41,391 from the previous year. 
The largest increase, amounting nearly to $2,000,000, was in 
iron and steel, and represented railway supplies and machinery. 

Great Britain has the lion's share of the trade, and has 
always had it. 

The imports in 1898 were divided among the principal 
nations, as follows : 

Great Britain $8,632,771 

Germany 3,401,887 

United States 2,078,376 

France 1,554,004 

Chile 1,368,530 

Italy 667,694 

Belgium ... 600,393 

China 526,649 

The trade with no other nation amounted to $500,000. 
There was an increase in favor of all the nations named except 



PERU IN PEACE AND PROSPERITY 145 

China, where there was a falling off of $41,378. The largest 
increase is shown in the imports from England, which 
amounted to $1,800,000. The imports from the United States 
also show considerable improvement, the increase being 
$430,849 in 1898, when they were larger than for any year 
since 187 1. 

The exports of Peru were as follows in 1898: 

Silver and copper ore $9,481,213 

Sugar 9,220,981 

Wool 3,082,635 

Raw cotton 2,469,955 

Hides and skins 831,186 

Cacao 876,345 

Rice 633,465 

Borax 574,226 

Coffee 54i,7i5 

Fruits and vegetables 506,709 

Silver coin and bullion 921,172 

There are a good many other items in the list of exports, 
but none of them exceeded $500,000. 

The cotton and mineral exports went chiefly to Great 
Britain, the rice to Ecuador and the sugar to the United States, 
to make up for the falling off in the product of Cuba. That 
trade, however, is only temporary, and the Peruvian sugar- 
growers will be greatly disappointed when the.y discover that 
fact. 

The export trade is divided as follows among the different 
nations : 

Great Britain . . $17,153,936 

Chile 4,588,479 

United States ....".... 2,873,526 

Germany 2,703,772 

Ecuador 892,006 

France 820,952 

Bolivia 628,926 

There were exports to several other nations, but none of 
them exceeded $500,000 in value. 



X 

THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 

It is customary for the congress of Peru to assemble on 
Independence day and receive the message of the president. 
The lower house of congress occupies the ancient edifice of the 
College of San Marco, the oldest institution of learning in 
America, which was founded by the Jesuit fathers in 155 1, 
sixty-nine years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth. This 
venerable structure has been restored, but still shows signs of 
its antiquity. 

The chamber of deputies is a long, narrow room, with 
crimson paper upon the walls and upholstery of the same 
color. The woodwork is painted white and lined with gold, 
and there is a beautiful ceiling of carved oak more than three 
centuries old. The president or speaker usually sits on a 
gilded chair under a velvet canopy, upon a dais approached by 
three steps, with a velvet cushion under his feet, and they call 
it a throne. On this occasion, however, the seat of honor was 
surrendered to the president of the republic and the president 
of the senate, who presided over the joint session, and two 
gilded chairs and two velvet cushions were placed side by side 
on this occasion. 

The members of the house sit in rows of arm chairs built 
into the wall on either side of the narrow apartment like those 
of a choir in a cathedral and somewhat similar to the house of 
commons in England. There is a large table in the center of 
the room, with a ponderous writing set of silver, a silver clock 
and a large crucifix of handsome polished mahogany, bearing 
an ivory figure of our Savior. Two lighted candles burn on 
either side, and in front of the crucifix is a silver urn. At the 
center of one of the side walls is a tribune or pulpit for the 
orators, and the members are required to occupy it when they 

146 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 147 

make speeches. Under it is a little ebony table for the use of 
the official reporter. In narrow galleries, which are fastened 
to the wall like brackets, and are reached by narrow, winding- 
stairways, are a few seats for the diplomatic corps, and a little 
corner that will accommodate five reporters. Behind the rail 
which separates the sanctum sanctorum from what we may call 
the lobby, are seats for about seventy-five or eighty persons, 
and high up toward the ceiling is a Moorish gallery of carved 
wood, the natural color, for the accommodation of the ladies. 
Altogether, it is a quaint, old-fashioned little room, and the 
proceedings were conducted with an old-fashioned decorum 
and propriety that corresponded well with the surroundings. 

The members came faltering in through private doors during 
the half-hour preceding the time of meeting, and every one 
was in what we call evening dress, a swallow-tail coat, low-cut 
waistcoat, white necktie and white gloves. Some of them 
carried opera hats, and indeed they were attired just as if they 
were going to a ball. The secretaries and clerks were clad in 
similar manner, and the pages wore livery and buttons like 
bell boys at a fashionable hotel. A military-looking man with 
a prodigious mustache, a resplendent uniform covered with 
gold braid and scarlet trousers acted as sergeant-at-arms and 
chief usher, and was assisted by several officers of lesser rank. 
During the proceedings he occupied a seat beside the throne. 

There are 113 members of the house and 102 were present, 
of whom the votes showed that the government had a majority 
of six. The roll call disclosed one general, seven colonels and 
six priests. The priests wore their ecclesiastical robes. Three 
members are brothers named Seminario y Arambura, from 
the city of Piura. They sit side by side, belong to the same 
political party, are all colonels in the army, and their family 
is one of the oldest and richest in Peru. Among the surnames 
I noticed one Abel, one Moses, one Isaiah, one Ezekiel, one 
Cataline, two Caesars, and ten Johns. 

The Isaiah is a son of President Pierola, a fine-looking 
young fellow, short and plump, with a pleasant face and an 
unostentatious mustache. He would pass in Chicago for a 
prosperous member of the board of trade. The president's 



148 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

brother, Carlos, was speaker of the last house, and presided 
over the preliminary proceedings, so that the Pierola family 
was well represented. Carlos looks like the typical Spaniard, 
with intensely black hair, Vandyke beard, and the manners of 
a courtier. Sousa, the new speaker of the house, is the presi- 
dent's brother-in-law, and on the streets of Chicago might 
easily be taken for ex-Mayor Hopkins. 

Altogether the members of the house are a fine-looking set 
of men, and they showed a sense of their dignity and the 
importance of the proceedings, which were more impressive 
than we are accustomed to in the house of representatives at 
Washington. They couldn't have behaved better at the 
funeral of an archbishop. The dim light of the room, the 
black garments and white gloves, the deferential manners and 
stately composure that prevailed throughout made frivolity 
impossible, and if John Allen or William E. Chandler should 
be elected to the Peruvian congress and attempt any of their 
jokes they would be expelled without reference to a committee 
and by a unanimous vote. 

When 3«p'clock came, one of the pages opened the big doors 
that led into the patio, and rang a hand bell vigorously, just 
like a country schoolteacher calling the children in from 
recess, or a farmer's wife summoning the hired men to dinner. 
A file of soldiers marched briskly in and stood at "attention" 
on either side of the entrance. Tardy members of the house 
sauntered in, bowed politely to their friends, and took their 
seats in silence, each political party on its own side of the 
chamber. 

While the clerk was calling the roll the general of the army 
with his staff appeared in a uniform quite as elaborate as that 
of General Miles. The citizens who had seized the seats in the 
public gallery refused to surrender them to him, although the 
sergeant-at-arms admonished them sternly. Thus, for once, 
the "civilfstas" got the better of the military in Peru, but the 
general and his staff punished them by treading on their toes 
and standing directly in front of them so that they could not 
see anything that was going on. 

The first business in order was the election of officers. 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 149 

There had been a caucus and a compromise, which is custom- 
ary. The government party gave the opposition one of the 
two vice-speakers and one of the three secretaries, who were 
formally elected by ballot. Then we learned what the urn 
was for. As the roll was called each member came forward 
and dropped into it a ballot upon which were written the 
names of the candidates he supported. Ordinary voting is 
done with marbles in a similar manner. A white marble 
dropped into the urn means a vote in the affirmative, a black 
marble means a negative vote. 

The speaker, or president, as they call him, uses a little 
silver tea bell instead of a gavel. When the outgoing presi- 
dent, Carlos Pierola, had counted and announced the vote, he 
called Aurelo Sousa, his brother-in-law and successor, forward 
to take the oath. A page brought a beautiful velvet cushion 
edged with gold braid, and placed it on the floor beside the 
table, while a second page brought a Bible, handsomely bound 
in red morocco and gilt, with a golden clasp. The new 
speaker knelt upon the cushion, looked upon the crucifix in 
front of him, and laid both of his white-gloved hands upon the 
word of God, while the oath that bound him to support the 
constitution and the Holy Apostolic Roman Catholic Church 
was administered. As he rose from his knees his brother-in- 
law shook hands with him and with a graceful gesture yielded 
the chair. There was no applause, for any demonstration is 
considered unbecoming. The new speaker bowed to the right 
and then to the left, where his political friends and foes were 
sitting, and then bowed to the middle of the room, where there 
was nothing but empty chairs, brought in for the accommoda- 
tion of the senators, who came later. Then he went down 
into his breast pocket and produced a manuscript, which he 
read in a sonorous voice. 

The new vice-presidents were sworn in together, kneeling 
on the same cushion, and then the other officers, and after 
them the members of the house took the oath of office in 
bunches of four in a similar manner. 

While this was going on the senators came rambling in by 
twos and threes for the joint session, and, bowing gracefully 



i S o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and respectfully to everybody, dropped into vacant seats. 
They also were in immaculate attire, with their evening suits, 
white gloves and opera hats, and were older and altogether 
more substantial in apppearance than the deputies. There 
were deeper lines upon their faces and more material in their 
waistcoats. There were several Indians, two mulattoes, and 
three priests in their clerical robes, among the senators. The 
senate of Peru, collectively speaking, is a much better-looking 
body than the senate of the United States. 

As in our own congress, a committee was appointed to 
wait upon the president of the republic and inform him that 
congress had organized and was ready to receive any commu- 
nication from the executive power. While it was gone the 
clerk of the senate entered the tribune and read with consid- 
erable dramatic power the Peruvian declaration of independ- 
ence, which was adopted seventy-eight years ago. During 
the reading the judges of the Supreme Court entered, wearing 
wide ribbons of red and white around their necks, cocked hats 
with black plumes, and carrying walking sticks, ornamented 
with golden cords and tassels. Then came the diplomatic 
corps, headed by the papal nuncior, who wore a purple cassock 
over a scarlet frock. 

Then there was a long wait until the notification committee 
returned and announced that the president was on his way to 
the chamber. But no people can better dispose of themselves 
in idleness than the Spanish-Americans, and none can main- 
tain such a dignified ease and composure under circumstances 
that would easily irritate an Englishman or an American. 
The silence was at last broken by the sound of bugles, long 
drawn out and always ending with a ludicrous little screech an 
octave higher. Then there was a clatter of hoofs and wheels 
upon the cobblestone pavement, a clanging of sabers, a hoarse 
shouting of orders and a rousing cheer, which still filled the 
air when a dapper little man stepped quickly into the patio 
with a smile on his face and a graceful acknowledgment of the 
cordial reception. He wore a Conkling curl on his high fore- 
head, and looked as if he had a private barber and kept him 
well employed. His tiny feet were shod with polished patent 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 151 

leather. A good face has President Pierola, and a kindly 
expression. He loves to please, and they say his greatest fault 
is a craving for admiration ; which, by the way, is not a crime 
in a public man. He has quick, nervous mannerisms. Every 
muscle in his small frame and every mental faculty is always 
alert. His style and manners are Frenchy, the broadcloth suit 
and the embroidered shirt he wore were made in Paris, and 
the handsome carriage, decorated in scarlet and gilt, in which 
he drove from the palace, is an exact copy of one that was used 
by Jules Grevy when he was president of France. Across his 
breast Pierola wore a sash of the national colors, with a heavy 
silk tassel at the end. 

The president entered the chamber slowly, with perfect 
self-possession and an eye to dramatic effect. He smiled as 
he caught the eyes of several friends while he stood on the 
threshold waiting for his cabinet to catch up with him, and 
bowed to several individuals of both political parties as he 
passed between them to the president's chair, followed by his 
ministers and a military staff in brilliant uniforms. He shook 
hands with the president of the senate and the speaker of the 
house, and, accompanied by the former, mounted the platform 
and took his seat in one of the gilded chairs. After a brief 
interval, that permitted quiet to be restored, he arose and 
rendered an account of his stewardship for the previous four 
years. 

The message was criticised as boastful, but it is a long time 
since any president of Peru has earned a right to boast, and 
Pierola's pride has a good foundation. He has the right to 
take the credit to his administration for the prosperity of his 
country and the prospects of peace and progress for the 
future. He spoke with gratification of the improved credit, 
the enlarged commerce, and especially of the fact that there 
would be no deficit in the national revenues during the current 
year, which I believe is unprecedented, at least in the present 
generation. Only once was he interrupted by applause, and 
that was spontaneous, the result of an irresistible spirit of 
approval among the spectators when he spoke of threatened 
revolution and declared it impossible, not because the power 



152 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

of the government could prevent it, but because the people 
were determined to have peace. 

As he commended his country to God in the usual formal 
phrases that conclude each public document, Pierola sank into 
his seat, the most thoroughly satisfied man that ever occupied 
the presidency of Peru, and a few moments later, when he 
shook hands with the president of the senate and bowed his 
way out of the chamber, he closed an epoch of unusual impor- 
tance in Peruvian history; a period of four years of peace. 

The system of government in Peru resembles that of 
France more than that of the United States. The cabinet 
ministers are responsible directly to congress, as in England, 
France and some other European countries, and are compelled 
to resign whenever there is a change in the political com- 
plexion of the legislative branch of the government or when- 
ever a lack of confidence in their administration is expressed. 
When a new president is inaugurated he designates some 
distinguished leader of the majority to form a cabinet, as 
is done in France, and the appointments are subject to con- 
firmation by both branches of congress. The ministers do not 
have seats on the floor, but are sent for from time to time and 
interrogated upon matters of business under their jurisdiction. 
Ministers are also authorized to prepare and present laws to 
both houses and assist in the discussion, but are required to 
retire before a vote is taken. Every senator and member of 
the house has an alternate elected at the same time, who has 
rights and privileges similar to those enjoyed by alternates in 
our political conventions, and whenever the principal fails to 
appear or desires for any reason to take a vacation, his substi- 
tute draws his pay and performs his duties. 

Members of congress are paid 40 sols a day during the time 
they are employed. The president has a salary of 24,000 sols 
a year, with an allowance of 51,000 sols for the support of the 
palace and the contingent expenses of his office. In 1899 the 
expenses of the legislative branch amounted to $364,370 out of 
a total of $12,604,670 for the entire government. The diplo- 
matic and consular service cost $87,473; the courts, prisons, 
schools and other institutions of similar character, $1,300,350, 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 153 

the treasury and custom service, $3,485,900; the army and 
navy, $3,370,470; the department of public works, $430,660, 
and the interior department, which is the largest and most 
important ministry of the government, $2,778,170, This 
includes the postal and telegraph service, the cost of elections, 
and the salaries and expenses of governors and other officials 
of provinces and towns throughout the republic, who are all 
appointed by the president and subject to his removal. 

The schools come under the minister of justice. It costs 
$9,000 to support the public library, $3,480 to care for the 
national archives, and $160,770 was contributed by the govern- 
ment for the support of the university and different colleges 
throughout the republic, of which the university proper 
received $82,530. 

The total contribution to the church is $162,140, which is 
expended in the support of the cathedrals and the salaries of 
the bishops at Lima, Trujillo, Cusco, Arequipa and other 
dioceses. The archbishop receives a salary of 8,000 sols. A 
large staff of secretaries and assistants, deans and canons, and 
even the organist and the janitors of the cathedrals, are upon 
the pay roll. All the cathedrals throughout the country are 
kept in repair and sustained by the federal government. 

The ordinary schools are supported by the municipalities 
and provinces, and education is nominally free and compulsory 
for children between the ages of 6 and 12 years, but the law is 
not enforced except in Lima, Callao and one or two other 
cities. The teachers are ill-paid, the buildings are inadequate, 
and in the interior schools are few and far between. The 
general government pays little attention to them, and their 
condition depends entirely upon the character of the governor 
of that particular district. 

While taking a trip over the famous Oroya road we visited 
a typical Peruvian country school at the little town of Chicla, 
in the heart of the Andes. It occupied a low-roofed mud hut 
adjoining the village church. There were about forty young- 
sters of both sexes, twelve years old and under, with bright, 
beadlike eyes, Indian features, stiff, coarse, coal-black hair, 
sturdy frames, and most of them had intelligent faces, partic- 



i54 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ularly the girls, who were more neatly dressed than the boys. 
Their teacher, from her appearance, was evidently a superior 
person, for her complexion was white, her manners were good, 
and she seemed to be well educated. The teacher of the boys' 
school was a dull-looking fellow, with a low brow and a furtive 
eye, who wore a sarepa or shawl around his throat and face, 
and kept his hat on in the schoolroom as if suffering from 
cold. The alcalde of the village happened to be present super- 
intending some repairs upon the building, whose crumbling 
walls were being re-enforced by fresh coats of mud that was 
mixed under his directions in the courtyard. The schoolhouse 
was as rude as a "dugout" on the prairies of Kansas in early 
da3 r s. The only furniture was a long table in the center and 
three or four low benches without backs. The wall was 
decorated with large cards upon which the alphabet, the 
diphthongs and words of one syllable were printed for the 
benefit of pupils whose education had not yet reached the 
period of books. With glowing pride the teacher called up 
his prize pupils and had them point out upon an illustrated 
chart the different forms of money, weights and measures used 
in Peru. Then the children gathered in the patio and sang the 
national hymn for us, after which we took their photographs 
collectively and threw pennies into the air for them to scram- 
ble after. 

The fashionable school for young ladies in Lima is the 
convent of San Pedro, an ancient institution, at which the 
daughters of wealthy families for many generations have been 
educated by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. There are vari- 
ous private schools for boys also, and among the most success- 
ful is a commercial high school with a three years' course 
under the care of the Rev. Dr. Wood of the methodist mission. 
It is entirely unsectarian, and receives no missionary funds, 
but is supported by tuition fees, with the help of,a financial 
guaranty from some of the most important business men in 
Lima. Dr. Wood also has a primary school for both sexes in 
Lima, with an average attendance of ioo and nine teachers. 
In Callao he has an elementary, an intermediate and a high 
school in English and an elementary school in Spanish, in 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 155 

which he is assisted by the Rev. Mr. Pusey, formerly of Medi- 
apolis, Iowa. These schools are also non-sectarian, and are 
supported by tuition fees and donations from business men in 
Peru who are interested in promoting English education, and 
the deficits are made up by the methodist board of missions. 
There are sixteen native teachers and helpers, and an average 
attendance of about 200 pupils. 

The University of Peru is a venerable institution — the oldest 
in America, having been founded by Pizarro shortly after the 
conquest of the county. Its schools of medicine and law hold 
their charters from Charles V. of Spain, and for many years 
young men from all parts of the continent went there for edu- 
cation. There are also classical schools and theological semi- 
naries in connection with several of the monasteries. 

Professional men from other countries find great difficulty 
in getting a start in Peru, because of the jealousy of the local 
practitioners against foreign competition, who have succeeded 
in inducing congress to pass rigid laws requiring examinations 
of the most severe character before foreigners are allowed to 
practice law or medicine, and the local bar and medical asso- 
ciations make it as difficult as possible for any one to get 
through. This is, of course, perfectly natural, and we who 
shut out foreign competition from our own country have no 
right to complain because other countries will not permit free 
trade in professional skill. 

The people of Peru and other Latin-American countries 
prefer American practitioners both in medicine and dentistry, 
and the local doctors realize it. They also recognize that our 
schools stand higher than any others in the world, but accept 
no diplomas on the pretext that fraudulent degrees have been 
issued by bogus American institutions, and that their fellow- 
citizens must be protected against quacks. The diplomatic 
agents of the United States, who have been negotiating for 
years to secure the acceptance of diplomas from American 
institutions, have met this objection every time they have 
proposed the question, and it will never be overcome in this 
generation. Every man who goes there to practice medicine 
or dentistry is required to speak the Spanish language fluently 



156 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

in order that he may obtain an intelligent diagnosis of a 
case, and his professional knowledge is ascertained by written 
and oral examinations conducted by the boards of the medical 
branch of the university. Nevertheless, there are two or three 
very successful American dentists in Peru, who, because of 
their superior skill, get the patronage of the best families. 

There is also a movement on foot against imported labor. 
Peru suffers from a want of workingmen as well as a want of 
capital. The population of the country has been gradually 
diminishing for several years, according to the opinion of men 
who are well posted, chiefly because of wars and revolutions. 
The war with Chile fifteen years ago resulted in the death of 
40,000 or 50,000 able-bodied laborers and the disability of per- 
haps as many more. The last revolution, by which President 
Pierola came into power, cost 10,000 lives, and the ordinary 
death rate is greater than the birth rate throughout the entire 
republic, notwithstanding the large families. Some years ago, 
during the boom in Peru, thousands of Chinamen were 
imported as laborers upon the railroads and the plantations. 
They came under contract for a term of years, and were con- 
demned to temporary slavery. They were kept in corrals like 
cattle, fed at certain hours of the day, and driven to their tasks 
under the lash. The contracts approved by the government 
provided that they should receive humane treatment, a certain 
amount of food a day, medical attendance and other attentions 
necessary for their health and happiness. But there was 
nobody to look after them, and on some of the plantations they 
suffered outrageous brutality. On others they were kindly 
treated and well taken care of. 

Most of the contracts have expired, and nearly all the coo- 
lies in the country are now free. The majority of them flocked 
to the cities as soon as they were released, but some remained 
on the plantations, married cholo women, and are doing well. 
There is a prejudice, however, against Chinamen in Peru, as 
everywhere, because of their frugality and willingness to work 
for low wages, and further immigration has been prohibited. 
Thinking that Japanese are less objectionable, some gentlemen 
not long ago obtained concessions to bring in a thousand 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 157 

coolies from Japan as an experiment. They were placed upon 
plantations in different parts of the country, but have turned 
out badly. The climate does not seem to agree with them, 
and the labor is too hard. Where a Chinaman will flourish 
and grow fat, a Japanese will lie down and die from fatigue. 
It is said that many of them have died from nostalgia, or 
homesickness. 

The army absorbs about 2,500 men every year, and is 
recruited from the cholos, or Indians of the mountains, who 
are entirely ignorant and unsophisticated, but are obedient, 
industrious and subject to discipline. Each province is 
required to furnish so many "recruits," who are sent down to 
Lima when the secretary of war calls for them. Conscription 
is forbidden by the constitution, but there seems to be no 
objection to seizing a lot of Indians and shipping them away 
from their homes to the capital whenever they are needed. 
When they arrive they are clad in comfortable uniforms 
of blue cotton cloth, are furnished with shoes and hats, and 
are taught much useful knowledge in addition to their mili- 
tary training, so that they soon become contented, and those 
who return to their homes at the end of two years' service are 
much better qualified to continue the struggle for existence 
than they were in the wild state, and usually become men of 
importance. But many die of disease or are slaughtered in 
revolutions; others become so fascinated with city life that 
they remain about Lima and Callao when the term of their 
enlistment is expired. A few continue in the army. Thus is 
the laboring element of the interior continually reduced in 
numbers, and there is nobody to take their places. Of course, 
soldiers are necessary, and in time of peace the peons who 
wear uniforms are undoubtedly much better off than they 
would be in their own homes. 

It takes three days to celebrate the anniversary of Peru's 
independence, which occurs on the 28th day of July, not 
including those which are employed in preparation for the 
fete, and those which are necessary to recover from the fatigue 
that excessive patriotism produces. The 27th, the 28th and 
the 29th of July are holidays. During those days the stores and 



158 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

factories are closed and all business is suspended. Even the 
steamers at Callao, which by their regular schedules should 
sail on holidays, have to tie up until the 31st, because the 
officials of the custom house are off for a good time, and the 
peons will not handle the cargo. During the evening, according 
to a venerated custom, everybody goes to the main plaza, a 
large open square upon which the old palace of Pizarro, the 
cathedral, the city hall, and other buildings face, and witness 
fireworks and illuminations which have been prepared for 
them by the government. Every window is illuminated, the 
cornices of the buildings are trimmed with lights, and various 
patriotic designs in gas and electricity add to the decorative 
brilliancy. 

The sidewalk of the square is encircled by a continuous line 
of booths and tables, occupied by sellers of chica, the native 
drink, sweetmeats and other refreshments, who maintain their 
places continuously from the evening of the 27th until midday 
on the 29th, and do great business with the hungry and thirsty 
peasants who come in to participate in the celebration. Mili- 
tary bands give concerts from 7 o'clock until midnight, all 
sorts of fakirs ply their trade at the street corners, and the 
thoroughfares are thronged with surging crowds full of chica 
and patriotism, and making all the noise they can. Many of 
them have "buzzers," tin horns and other curious instruments 
to torture the hearing. Many of these we northern people 
have never seen, such as the ones called pitos, pifanos, tam- 
bores, matracas, zamponas, and cascabeles. The night is a 
tempest of sound, but everybody is good-natured and embraces 
his friends as fast and as frequently as he sees them. When 
a Peruvian peon gets drunk he does not become ugly, but 
affectionate. Therefore we saw no fighting, but a great deal 
of hugging, by men as well as by women. 

On the night of the 28th the boys are allowed to torment 
the Chinamen, and the latter hide themselves early in the 
evening to avoid persecution. There are several thousand in 
the city, and, as is customary elsewhere, they occupy a quarter 
by themselves, through which crowds of hoodlums rush 
brandishing stalks of bamboo and sugar cane with a hope of 



THE CONGRESS OF PERU IN SESSION 159 

finding- some celestial to flog with them. The police protect 
the Chinese on all other occasions, but, by reason of some 
unhappy custom, they have to look out for themselves on 
independence night, and it is frequently the occasion of riots 
in the Chinese quarter when the baiting is carried too far. 

At 10 o'clock on the morning of Independence day the 
president of Peru, accompanied by his cabinet and military 
staff, the members of the diplomatic corps and the federal 
courts and many other "functionaries publicos," attends mass 
at the cathedral, which is usually celebrated by the archbishop. 

The church of the Franciscans, and, in fact, nearly all the 
churches, have been restored at the expense of the municipal 
or provincial government. The federal government looks 
after the cathedral only, for that is a national institution, and 
well it should be, because the church and state have gone hand 
in hand ever since Pizarro landed on the coast of Peru. When 
he gathered his little battalion of freebooters in the plaza of 
Cajamarca, awaiting an interview with Atahualpa, the Inca 
emperor, "to explain the pacific intentions of the Spaniards 
in visiting the country, " Father Valverde, chaplain of the 
expedition, stood by Pizarro's side, and as the unsuspecting 
Indian, reclining on a litter carried by his attendants and 
soldiers, adorned with plumes of various colors, wearing an 
armor of gold and silver, embossed with precious stones, came 
into their presence with the officers of his court, the padre 
approached him with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in 
the other, and commanded Atahualpa in a loud voice to accept 
the Christian faith, to acknowledge the authority of the pope 
and to recognize the sovereignty of the king of Spain on the 
instant, threatening that unless the Inca did as he was told he 
would suffer the severest punishment. Atahualpa refused, and 
as a rebuke the Spanish soldiers murdered the whole outfit. 

From that time until now the political and religious affairs 
of Peru have been conducted with similar harmony, with a few 
short intervals of disaffection. 

The archbishop of Peru is an officer of the government. 
He is elected by congress, his salary and the expenses of his 
establishment, as well as the cost of maintaining the cathedral, 



160 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

are paid from the public treasury by an annual appropriation 
of congress and cost about $7,000 a month. The pope con- 
firms the appointment and consecrates the archbishop, but 
according to the terms of a concordat between Peru and the 
Vatican he cannot remove him or appoint any one to that 
office without the consent of the Peruvian congress. The 
archbishops have been generally eminent men. Priests have 
always taken a prominent part in the politics of the country. 
Several are members of the senate and chamber of deputies, 
and both houses are seldom without them. Monks and priests 
have been elected presidents of the senate and speakers of the 
house and have frequently served as members of the cabinet. 
The present archbishop, Mgr. Tovar, was for several years 
minister of foreign affairs, and is recognized as a skillful poli- 
tician and a statesman of ability. He has also served for 
several terms in both houses of congress and has been quite as 
prominent and active in political as in ecclesiastical affairs. 
He is still young, active, and popular with all classes, being 
a man of broad views and much more liberal in his tendencies 
than his predecessor, Archbishop Bandini. 

The president of Peru rides in an elaborate carriage, 
similar to those used by the crowned heads of Europe. It is 
large, high, and handsomely decorated. The box is hung with 
upholstery and fringes of scarlet and white, which are the 
colors of the republic, and the coachmen and footmen and 
the two outriders who stand in a boot at the rear are dressed 
to correspond, with cocked hats, silk stockings, silver buckles 
on their boots and all the livery of royalty, except powdered 
wigs. Upon either door of the carriage appears a representa- 
tion of the coat of arms of the republic about a foot or eighteen 
inches in diameter, painted in brilliant colors. The carriage 
is drawn by four handsome bay horses, with docked tails and 
a harness heavily mounted in silver and bearing the coat of 
arms on every buckle and rosette. 

The cemeteries of Lima, like those of Ecuador and other 
South American countries, are filled with immense vaults ten 
or twelve feet high, divided into pigeon holes, each large 
enough to contain a coffin. These pigeon holes are sold or 



THE CONGRESS OP PERU IN SESSION 161 

rented in perpetuity or for a given number of years. If the 
rent is not paid after the expiration of the time for which 
payment is made the coffin or the bones are taken out and 
buried in the potter's field. After the coffin is placed in the 
vault the opening is sealed up with a slab of marble, upon 
which the epitaph is inscribed with appropriate designs. 
Some of the private vaults are of beautiful architecture and 
costly workmanship. 

There is a special cemetery for criminals, suicides, atheists, 
duelists and others who die outside the pale of the church. 
There are a great many free-thinkers in Peru. They are 
mostly highly-educated professional men who have left the 
catholic church because of skepticism and do not find greater 
satisfaction in protestantism. Free-thinkers are found in the 
universities and the learned societies. Their leader in Peru is 
a Dutch dentist who was born in the colony of Curacao, in the 
West Indies, and bears the peculiar name of Christian Dam. 
Not long ago, at a religious celebration at Arequipa, an effigy 
was made which bore a marked resemblance to this notorious 
person and was filled with firecrackers and other explosives. 
At the proper time the fuse was lighted and the effigy blew 
into fiery fragments. 

Dueling is prohibited by law, and the authorities have 
endeavored to suppress it by the courts as well as by the 
church. Duels were frequent in former years, but not long 
ago a distressing event occurred which has effectually put an 
end to that method of settling difficulties. Two gentlemen of 
commercial and social prominence quarreled over a seat in one 
of the plazas during a band concert, and the next morning 
met with their seconds and a surgeon at the dueling ground 
on the outskirts of the city. One of them was killed. The 
survivor was arrested, convicted and sentenced to seven years' 
imprisonment. The seconds and the surgeon were sentenced 
to four years and are now serving time in the penitentiary. 



XI 

THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 

The constitution of Peru declares that the Apostolic Cath- 
olic faith is the religion of the country, and that no other form 
of worship shall be permitted in public. There are, neverthe- 
less, two protestant churches, one in Lima and one in Callao, 
maintained by the English, German and American residents, 
and a Methodist chapel in Lima and one in Callao, where 
services are held in Spanish two nights each week. The 
Anglo-American church is supported by subscriptions from the 
foreign residents. The Methodists receive some assistance 
from the Board of Missions in New York. The Spanish services 
are tolerated by the government on the theory that they are 
privately and not publicly held, and this pretense is strictly 
respected by requiring every native who attends the Methodist 
chapels to present a card of invitation at the door. These 
cards are issued by the Rev. Dr. Wood and his native assist- 
ants in their evangelical work to all natives who express a 
desire to attend the protestant church. For similar reasons 
the Anglo-American churches present the outward appearance 
of ordinary buildings. A stranger would never suspect that 
he was passing a church unless he entered the door. Dr. 
Wood contends, however, that this condition is not necessary, 
and is ready to test it in the courts whenever he can obtain 
the funds, by erecting a conventional church edifice similar 
to those in the United States. The Masonic temple in Callao 
was built with every appearance of its purpose, notwithstand- 
ing the objections and the protests of the priests, the police 
authorities having decided that such a building could not be 
prohibited so long as it was owned by a private association. 
Dr. Wood thinks this offers a precedent of importance to 
protestant missionary work in the future. There are also in 

162 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 163 

Lima and Callao a number of Chinese "Joss" houses. One of 
them adjoins the Methodist chapel in Callao, — and they have 
never been interfered with. 

The only time protestant worship was ever interrupted in 
Lima was during the "week of prayer" designated by the 
international evangelical alliance in 1899, when the unusual 
number of services at the Methodist chapel attracted the 
attention of the authorities. They were accustomed to see 
the native protestants or "evangelicos," as they call them, 
gather twice a week in a little room behind the great monas- 
tery of the St. Augustine order, but when meetings were 
held every evening suspicion was excited, and in the midst of 
the services one Saturday night, a colonel of the army, who 
was serving as a captain of police in that precinct, entered the 
chapel, interrupted Dr. Wood's discourse, and standing by 
the pulpit declared the meeting illegal and contrary to law 
and good order. When Dr. Wood expostulated and explained 
that there was no political significance to the gathering, and 
that it was intended only for teaching the Bible, — laying his 
hand upon the book to emphasize his words, the colonel 
declared that the Bible itself was contrary to the constitution 
of Peru and ordered the people out of the room. When the 
thirty men and twenty women present had departed, Dr. 
Wood claimed immunity from interruption and arrest on the 
ground that the chapel was his private property and that the 
congregation were his guests. The colonel did not dispute 
this statement, but declared that the meetings were illegal and 
could not be continued. 

Soon after the officer left the room, Dr. Wood extinguished 
the lights, locked the door and followed him. When he had 
reached the street he was immediately arrested by a policeman 
who had been stationed outside for that purpose, and taken 
to the Monserrat Barracks, the police headquarters, where he 
was received with great courtesy and escorted to a room not 
used for ordinary prisoners, but as a dormitory for the reserve 
police when they were off duty. The men of his congrega- 
tion followed him to the police station, and to one of them 
Dr. Wood gave his watch, notebooks and a message to his 



i6 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

family. The "evangelicos" offered to go to the United States 
legation and arouse the minister, but Dr. Wood desired to 
test his rights under the Peruvian law and decided not to 
appeal for the protection of his government except in a great 
emergency. 

An hour later, near 10 o'clock, Colonel Juan Toreco, a 
well-known and influential officer of the Peruvian army, then 
attached to the police force, came in and explained to Dr. 
Wood that his arrest was due to the illegal character of his 
meetings, which were contrary to the constitution and the laws 
of Peru. He, too, explained that it was unlawful to teach the 
Bible or preach doctrines that differed from the established 
religion of the country, and, after amiable controversy, offered 
to discharge Dr. Wood provided he would agree to abandon 
his evangelical work. Dr. Wood emphatically declined, on 
the ground that he preferred to test his rights in the courts. 
Finally Colonel Toreco offered to release him on parole until 
the next Monday — this was Saturday night — and in the mean- 
time consult the authorities. He was very polite and courte- 
ous, both in manners and conversation, and offered Dr. Wood 
refreshments and a horse to ride to the railway station. 

The Methodist natives had all been notified of the occur- 
rence, and on Sunday assembled at the chapel in large num- 
bers. Dr. Wood related his experience, announced his 
intention of contesting his rights, and appointed a meeting 
for every night from that date until further notice without 
concealment or any departure from the regular customs of the 
congregation. 

On Monday he appeared at the police headquarters accord- 
ing to the agreement, and had another pleasant interview with 
Colonel Toreco, who requested him to suspend his meetings 
until the authorities could make an investigation and decide 
the question of their legality. This he refused to do, and, 
having prepared himself in the meantime, submitted an argu- 
ment to sustain his rights, which, in brief was (i) that under 
the constitution no one can be prevented from doing what is 
not prohibited by law; (2) that the constitution guarantees 
the protection of private rights and the sanctity of private 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 165 

property and that there is no law to prohibit him from 
instructing his friends in the Bible, or in the doctrine of pro- 
testantism, provided it is not done in a public manner. He 
cited the action of the Supreme court in the case of Francisco 
Pensoti, an agent of the American Bible Society, who, in 1891, 
after suffering imprisonment for eight months, was discharged 
from custody by an order of the court and permitted to hold 
meetings and preach the gospel privately. The decision of 
the court in that case, however, was negative, rather than pos- 
itive, for the purpose of leaving Mr. Pensoti no ground for a 
claim for damages. 

Colonel Toreco finally consented to release Dr. Wood on 
permanent parole with the understanding that he would not 
commit any unlawful act, and promised to attend the meet- 
ings in order that he might determine himself whether they 
were illegal. Dr. Wood gave him a card of invitation to be 
presented at the door. The Colonel did not appear, however, 
and the meetings at the methodist chapel have not been 
interfered with since in any way. He has shown more than 
usual cordiality to Dr. Wood when they have met, and the 
arrest and the parole have never been alluded to. It was 
learned afterward that the police authorities were severely 
rebuked by influential politicians, and by their superiors in the 
government, both for political reasons and because of the 
probable effect upon foreign nations and the efforts of the gov- 
ernment to promote immigration and induce foreign capital 
to engage in the development in the mines and other natural 
resources of the country. It is admitted that the religious 
intoleration of Peru has been a serious drawback in this devel- 
opment. Foreigners will not go where they are not allowed to 
worship in their own way and educate their children in pro- 
testant doctrines. 

In 1895 the protestant community in Trujillo, an important 
town in the northern part of the republic, was prohibited 
from holding meetings by the police, who denounced them as 
unlawful and brought the missionaries before the criminal 
court. But after a brief investigation no indictment was 
found, the case was dropped, and no further interference was 



166 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

offered until 1898, when the government officials called 
informally upon the missionaries and requested them to sus- 
pend their meetings because martial law had been declared, 
all public gatherings had been prohibited, and it was feared 
that trouble might be caused if an exception was made in favor 
of the protestants. 

Free Masonry is prohibited by the church authorities, but 
there are several lodges of natives as well as foreigners in 
Lima, Callao and other cities of the republic. Some years ago, 
during the progressive period in Peru, free masonry was very 
popular among the natives, and the church attempted to crush 
it by excommunication, but afterwards decided to ignore it so 
far as possible, although masons are not now admitted to com- 
munion, and cannot be buried in consecrated ground. The 
growth of masonry was stopped, however, when a dentist 
named Dr. Christian Dam, a leader of the atheistic element, 
who had been elected grand master of the Peru jurisdiction, 
banished the Bible from the lodge rooms and publicly 
denounced it as a fiction concocted by superstitious monks in 
the middle ages. This created a profound sensation, and both 
foreign and native masons made a protest at once. The 
fraternity was divided. Dr. Dam and his supporters with- 
drew from the old lodges and organized new ones. The 
priests utilized the incident to organize a crusade against 
masonry, and tried to make it disreputable. Christian Dam 
left Lima and went to Arequipa, but was not able to practice 
his profession of dentistry in that city on account of public 
prejudice against his atheistical views, and returned to Lima, 
where he is now living. The incident is being forgotten, and 
masonry is gradually recovering a normal condition, but is not 
so flourishing as formerly. 

Until recently the courts of Peru did not recognize the 
legality of marriage performed outside the catholic church. 
All children born of parents who had been married by protes- 
tant clergymen were pronounced illegitimate, and neither they 
nor the wife could inherit property from the husband and 
father. No marriage was considered binding unless it received 
the blessing of a catholic priest. The same conditions for- 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 167 

merly existed in all the Latin-American countries, but now only 
Peru, Ecuador and Colombia reject protestant and civil mar- 
riages, and in most of the others civil contracts alone are legal, 
as in France. The couple may go to church afterwards if they 
like to satisfy their religious scruples or adhere to the ancient 
custom, but it is not necessary. For several years the liberals 
have been trying to get such a law in Peru, but have found it 
impossible. The next step was the passage of an act author- 
izing and legalizing protestant and civil marriages only among 
the foreign and non-catholic population. The first time this act 
was passed, about two years ago, it was vetoed by President 
Pierola. Congress passed it a second time over his veto by the 
constitutional two-thirds majority, and Alexander Romana, a 
brother of President Romana, who had just taken the position 
of Minister of the Interior and chief of the cabinet, insisted 
that it should be vetoed a second time ; but the remainder of 
the cabinet and the supporters of the administration in con- 
gress warned Pierola that it was unsafe for him to defy the 
legislative branch of the government, and so he signed it ; but 
Romana resigned rather than give his consent. 

The spirit and the letter of the act were practically nullified 
by the government in the regulations which were framed to 
carry it into effect. It pleased President Pierola and his 
advisors to construe it as applying to protestants only and civil 
magistrates are not permitted to marry catholics. They also 
officially declared that all natives of Peru, all persons whose 
parents were catholics, or who have been baptized in the 
catholic church or educated in catholic schools are catholics 
under the law. They argue that the catholic religion being 
the constitutional faith of the republic, all citizens must neces- 
sarily accept that religion. Therefore the civil marriage law 
is operative only for the benefit of foreigners who have been 
brought up in the protestant faith. For example, when a 
young Englishman and the daughter of an Italian merchant in 
Lima desired to be married by a civil ceremony, their request 
was denied because the young lady had been educated in *.he 
San Pedro convent, and therefore must be a catholic. 

The alcalde of Callao, where a large proportion of the pop- 



i68 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

illation are foreigners, whose children are constantly being 
inter-married with the families of natives, in 1899 asked 
the government for a reconsideration of its construction of the 
law, but the cabinet paid no attention to his appeal. The 
alcalde asked : Who shall judge whether a person who applies 
to be married is entitled to the benefits of the law? Who shall 
determine whether he or she is a catholic or not? He argued 
that people who are old enough to be married ought to be able 
to decide what religious faith they adhere to, and if the appli- 
cant declares that he or she is not a catholic, by what right can 
a magistrate refuse to marry them under the civil law? The 
minister of the interior replied that all Peruvians are catholics, 
and that the alcalde need ask no other question after he has 
ascertained the place of birth and parentage. 

The authorities also framed regulations which make it diffi- 
cult and disagreeable for people to take advantage of the civil 
marriage law, and many who otherwise would have done so 
have been deterred in order to avoid the notoriety and pub- 
licity which is necessary. 

It is asserted that more than 50 per cent of the children 
born in Peru are illegitimate, chiefly among the poorer classes. 
This is accounted for by the excessive fees required by the 
priests, which place marriage beyond the reach of the cholos 
or peasants. The fees fixed by canon law are $1 or $1.50 for 
the publication of the bans, $6 or $10 for performing the cere- 
mony, and $3 or $5.50 for a nuptial mass, if that is desired. 
The difference in the fees is regulated by the elaborateness of 
the ceremony, but it is expressly provided that members of 
the church who are too poor to pay these fees shall be married 
for nothing, so that the fault lies with the priests if such con- 
ditions exist as are described. 

St. Peter said: "Thy money perish with thee; because thou 
hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with 
money;" but if a poor sinner in South America wants consola- 
tion he must pay for it. If he wants absolution he must offer 
so many dollars as well as so many prayers. The ordinary 
priests will not visit the sick or administer the sacrament to 
the dying unless they are paid in advance, and masses for the 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 169 

dead are never celebrated except for fees. The marriage fees 
imposed by the priests are too large for the poor to pay, hence 
the majority of the population are living as husbands and wives 
without the sanction of the church, and the great mass of 
children are illegitimate, perhaps as many as 60 or 70 per cent. 
Pecuniary penance is imposed at the confessional so frequently 
that it is not even a matter of comment, and people always 
expect to pay a fee when they seek the intercession of the 
Virgin and the saints. The blessing of the Virgin of Copoco- 
bana in Bolivia is sold just like the bread and chicha and the 
knicknacks on the plaza in front of her shrine. The priests 
must have money and contrive many ingenious methods of 
getting it. In Costa Rica some years ago, they sold reserved 
seats in heaven and furnished certificates to the purchaser 
designating the place he and his family would occupy for all 
eternity. You can find such certificates hanging in frames 
upon the walls of some of the best houses in that republic. 

In Quito and other cities of South America it is possible to 
communicate in writing with the Savior, or the Blessed Vir- 
gin, or any of the saints, and upon the payment of a liberal 
fee the monks will obtain replies to the communications, just 
as the ancient Greeks besought advice from their hidden 
Oracles. At the Jesuit Convent of San Luis de Gonzaga in 
Lima, not long ago, there was a letter box hanging in the 
portico to receive communications addressed to the Savior, the 
Holy Mother and the Saints, and it was as common for the 
people of that city to write them letters beseeching sympathy 
and succor as it is for the children of the United States at 
Christmas time to write Santa Claus for the toys they crave. 
If a certain amount of money was enclosed, the communica- 
tions were answered by the saints to whom they were addressed ; 
if not they received no attention. 

Although the sale of indulgences has been forbidden by the 
church for several centuries, the practice is still continued in 
the interior villages of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, 
and perhaps in some of the other countries ; and it is not only 
possible to purchase absolution for the living, but also peace 
for the dead. A soul may be translated from purgatory to 



170 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

paradise at almost any time by the payment of a fee. The 
priest celebrates a mass at the church, and then goes to the 
cemetery and utters what is called a "responso" before the 
tomb of the person in question. 

In the interior of Peru and Bolivia a popular method of 
raising money is by what is called a "Loteria de los Perdidos" 
(Lottery of Lost Souls) . In some localities this practice is as 
common as church fairs and Sunday-school picnics or Christ- 
mas trees with us. A given number of tickets are issued by 
the priest and offered for sale to the public through the women 
and children of the congregation, and the sacristan of the 
church. They are often exposed for sale in saloons and 
cigar booths, and I have seen them peddled on the street like 
ordinary lottery tickets for a commission. On the day of the 
drawing everybody interested goes to the church, and after a 
brief service a cask is brought out and placed on a table before 
the altar. The cask is whirled around until the cards it con- 
tains are well shaken up, when a little child dressed like an 
angel, with wings and a crown of flowers, a great deal of tulle, 
white shoes and white gloves, appears. She dips her little 
hand into the barrel and draws out as many cards as there are 
prizes. Persons holding the numbers that appear on these 
cards are entitled to select some soul that has been suffering 
in purgatory less than one year for translation to paradise. A 
few days later the people who hold the tickets contribute to a 
purse which pays the priest for celebrating high mass, which 
is often attended with pompous ceremonies. At the conclusion 
of the mass a procession is formed with the effigy of the Vir- 
gin carried upon a litter in advance, and when the cemetery is 
reached the priest sprinkles the graves with holy water and 
utters a "responso" to release the souls that have been named. 

This is an actual and common occurrence in certain local- 
ities, and travelers who have the curiosity to investigate such 
things can find other practices quite as extraordinary, which 
are not even notorious, because the people are so accustomed 
to them. These practices are known at Rome, and have fre- 
quently been the subject of serious consideration at the Vat- 
ican, but the church authorities are powerless to correct customs 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 171 

that are the growth of ignorance and superstition on the part 
of the people and cupidity on the part of the priests. It is 
not always the bishops, but usually the parish priests that are 
responsible, and they justify such practices on the ground that 
they are necessary to raise the funds for the support of the 
church and stimulate the interest of the people in religion. 

An eminent prelate in South America defended these prac- 
tices to me not long ago, and declared they were quite as 
legitimate as the social features of religious life in North 
America. He contended that the church processions and 
other peculiar features in South America were absolutely nec- 
essary in order to satisfy the peons, who, if the church did not 
furnish them such diversions would indulge in others even 
more reprehensible. 

"Of course," he said, "I do not believe in many of the 
practices that prevail here, but I do not forbid them because 
I know that they are necessary. The ignorant people of these 
countries are fond of demonstrations in which they can partic- 
ipate, and it does them more good to carry a banner and walk 
in a procession than you can imagine. If the church does not 
provide such amusements the politicians will do so, and it is 
very important that we keep our people under our own control. ' ' 

In almost every household is a wooden image of some saint 
to which its inmates offer prayers and adoration, but, if the 
blessings they pray for are not realized, they lose their patience 
and punish the saint as if it was a naughty child. They strip 
the wooden image of its finery, beat it with sticks, souse it in 
a tub of filthy water, lock it up in a dark closet, and use other 
means of coercion until it is willing to answer their prayers. 

Saint Isador is the patron saint of agriculture, and in almost 
every farming village a chapel or a shrine has been erected in 
his honor. Before planting and before harvest, and at various 
times during the season, those who have crops in the ground 
place money and other votive offerings upon the altar, and 
make "beatos, " or "mandas, " two different kinds of vows, and 
pray for his intercession. After compliance with these require- 
ments, if their crops fail, they revenge themselves by beating- 
or stoning him. If it rains too little or too much, it is cus- 



172 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

tomary to propitiate the saint by taking the image from the 
altar and carrying it through the streets trimmed with gay 
muslins and artificial flowers, accompanied by a band of music ; 
but if this adoration is not effective, if the drought continues, 
they try another method, and drag the wooden effigy through 
the streets with a rope around its neck, kicking it, beating it 
with sticks, and pelting it with stones. The village priests 
often assist at these performances, and always encourage or 
at least permit them. 

On the 5th of May, 1848, there occurred at Santiago, Chile, 
a most disastrous earthquake. The morning of that day a 
woman who had become disgusted with the refusal of her saint 
to answer her prayers, tore the image from the altar, stripped 
it of its decorations, and threw it into the street. At that 
moment the earthquake began, and it continued until a priest, 
hurrying to a place of safety, picked up the image and carried 
it into a neighboring church, where he reverently placed it 
upon the altar. At that moment the earthquake ceased, and 
to this day the people and the clergy, and formerly the officials 
of the government, celebrate the 5th of May as a holiday, 
second only in importance to the 18th of September, which is 
their Fourth of July. This effigy was formerly taken from its 
altar and carried through the streets under a scarlet canopy, 
followed by the president of the republic and his cabinet, the 
members of congress and the judiciary, the archbishop, the 
bishops and other prelates of the church, and by thousands of 
people, with bands of music and banners, and usually a regi- 
ment of military as an escort of honor. All the business 
houses were closed ; work was suspended in all the factories, 
and everybody joined in paying honor to a wooden effigy 
which was called Saint Cinco de Mayo (St. 5th of May), 
because the woman who threw it into the street and her family 
were killed in the earthquake, and it was impossible to ascer- 
tain what particular saint it was originally intended to repre- 
sent. 

Since the separation of church and state in Chile, however, 
this anniversary has lost much of its importance, and is no 
longer celebrated as a national holiday. Nevertheless, the 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 173 

church teaches that such propitiation of the unknown wooden 
image is necessary to prevent a recurrence of the awful catas- 
trophe of 1848. 

A great deal of curiosity was excited all over the world as 
to the purpose of the convocation of the bishops and arch- 
bishops of the catholic church in South America, which was 
called at Rome in the summer of 1899, although it was not an 
unusual event in ecclesiastical history. On the contrary, it is 
customary for His Holiness to call together the prelates of 
different sections of the world at intervals in order to confer 
with them concerning ecclesiastical affairs, but this was the 
first time the prelates of South America were ever invited to 
the Vatican, and there are reasons for believing that the 
meeting was one of uncommon importance. Its general pur- 
pose is supposed to have been the reformation or moderniza- 
tion, so to speak, of the church in South America, where it has 
failed to keep pace with the progress of civilization, and for 
that reason has largely lost the support of the educated and 
progressive classes. There is as much difference between the 
catholic church in South America and the catholic church in 
North America as between the African-methodist church of 
Mississippi and the unitarian church of Massachusetts, and 
the ignorance and superstition and the moral corruption of the 
priests have driven the intellectual element of the population 
into materialism. 

In every one of the Latin- American countries, from Mexico 
southward, the clergy have persistently opposed the education 
of the people and the introduction of modern improvements, 
and have endeavored to continue the intolerance of the fif- 
teenth century. The result has been to make the church a 
political issue and to divide the people into two factions, — the 
liberals and the conservatives, as they call themselves, or the 
"clericals," as they are called by their opponents. In nearly 
all the countries the clerical party has been overthrown and the 
liberal party is in power. The latter gradually grows stronger 
as the people become enlightened. Therefore, the more pro- 
gressive prelates of South America have been endeavoring to 
liberalize the church as much as possible, for they believe 



174 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

that such a change is necessary before it can regain suprem- 
acy. Wherever there is a liberal government, the orders of 
religious seclusion have been suppressed, the schools have 
been secularized, the rite of civil marriage has been adopted, 
the property of the church has been confiscated, and the peo- 
ple generally have drifted away from the religious training of 
their fathers. Educated men do not attend church ; they neg- 
lect the confessional and other religious duties; join lodges of 
free masons, and encourage the publication of atheistical liter- 
ature. This tendency has been increasing so rapidly as to give 
great concern to the hierarchy, and the convocation at Rome 
was called for the purpose of discussing measures to resist and 
correct it. Sooner or later, the details of the conference will 
become known, but at present they are only matters of specu- 
lation. 

One of the most important events of an ecclesiastical nature 
that has recently occurred in South America took place in the 
summer of 1899, and was the first direct result of the con- 
vocation. This was the restoration of the archbishop of the 
Argentine republic and the renewal of relations between the 
government of that country and the Vatican, which had been 
suspended for sixteen years. In 1884 a parish priest at Rosario 
threatened to excommunicate the parents of 3 T oung ladies who 
attended a normal school taught by Miss Clara Armstrong, of 
Winona, Minn. It was a government school, under the super- 
vision of the Minister of Education, for the purpose of educat- 
ing teachers for the public schools of the country, and although 
Miss Armstrong was a protestant, she never attempted to teach 
or even discuss religious questions before her pupils. Never- 
theless, the priests held that catholic families should not allow 
their daughters to remain under the instruction of a protestant, 
but should send them to the regularly established church 
schools, and as they declined to do so, he adopted extreme 
measures, and placed them under the ban. 

Miss Armstrong reported the matter to the Minister of 
Education, who made an investigation and sustained her, and 
complained to the archbishop that the priest at Rosario was 
interfering with matters that did not concern him. The arch- 



THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 175 

bishop sustained the priest, and the papal nuncio sustained 
the archbishop, who issued a decree forbidding the chil- 
dren of catholic families to attend schools taught by pro- 
testant teachers. General Roca, who was president of the 
Argentine Republic then as he is now, expelled the archbishop 
and the papal nuncio from the country for interfering with 
political and secular affairs, and issued a proclamation, warn- 
ing the priests of the country that they must not meddle with 
the public schools. 

From that date until the summer of 1899 there were no 
relations whatever between the Vatican and the Argentine 
Republic, but President Roca when re-elected responded cor- 
dially to the overtures of the church, and entered into an 
arrangement for the return of the nuncio and the restoration 
of the archbishop upon a broad and liberal understanding that 
they and the priests of the country shall devote their entire 
attention to the spiritual condition of the people, and not 
interfere in political or secular matters. 

Another result expected from the convocation is the 
appointment of a cardinal to supervise the affairs of the church 
in South America. 

Shortly after the convocation a cablegram sent to the news- 
papers from Rome contained a copy of an encyclical alleged to 
have been issued by the Pope absolving the clergy of the 
Latin-American countries from their vows of chastity and 
celibacy. It is universally pronounced a forgery, but at the 
same time persons familiar with the history of the church sug- 
gested that it might perhaps be founded upon a meager basis 
of facts. 

Two centuries ago or more the bishops and priests of South 
America applied to the Pope for a release from such vows, but 
after due consideration it was decided that he had no power to 
grant absolution to any one engaged in the ministry. During 
the Napoleonic regime in France the emperor issued an edict 
releasing the clergy from vows of celibacy, and a great many 
bishops and priests married, including Prince Talleyrand. 
After the restoration of the church this offered a serious dilem- 
ma, and the Holy Father granted the necessary absolution to 



176 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

all priests and bishops who had married wives and legitima- 
tized their children, providing they left the ministry. Married 
priests who remained in the ministry were divorced. The 
church allowed them freedom of choice between the pulpit 
and the married life, . without attempting to influence them 
either way, and gave an unrestricted benediction upon the 
decision of every clergyman who had married under the license 
of Napoleon. 

It has frequently been asserted by prominent prelates of 
Latin-America that the intellectual and moral standing of the 
clergy cannot be advanced unless marriage is permitted 
because the better class of young men will not take the vows 
of celibacy and are therefore kept out of the priesthood, while 
those who have less conscience enter it and violate them. But 
the church has decided that the pope has no power to grant 
such absolution, and the bishops could not have recommended 
anything further than to offer absolution to those priests who 
now have families, provided they leave them or leave the min- 
istry, as was done in France a hundred years ago. 



XII 

THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 

One Sunday afternoon I attended an impressive ceremony 
at the national penitentiary of Peru, when Bishop Medina of 
Trujillo confirmed in the catholic communion fifteen Chinese 
convicts — "Asiaticos infideles," as he called them — and one 
American, who was serving seven years' time for having 
attempted to set fire to a schooner at Mollendo some years ago. 
He says that he was drunk and did not know what he was 
doing, and that he tried to put the fire out as soon as he 
realized the enormity of his act. He has been an exemplary 
prisoner, and is allowed unusual liberties. Having learned 
the Spanish language, he is employed as an interpreter and 
messenger about the office of the warden, and conducted us 
through the institution, which is modeled upon the Moyamen- 
sing prison of Philadelphia, and is one of the most complete, 
well-kept and humane reformatories in South America. 

The prisoners are employed in workshops during the day, 
as in our own prisons, except such as are sentenced to solitary 
confinement or are under discipline. They make boots and 
shoes, saddles, harness and similar goods for the army, and 
are paid for what they produce, so that each one has a consid- 
erable balance of money to his credit when he is discharged — 
usually sufficient to maintain him until he can find honest 
employment. At night they are shut in their cells, which 
open upon long corridors that run like the spokes of a wheel 
from the central guardroom, where officers are always sta- 
tioned. By turning in his chair a guard can inspect every 
corridor. All the cells in the same row are locked with a 
single lever, and the prisoners move out and in, rise and 
retire, prepare themselves for their meals and the duties of the 
day to the sound of a bugle. 

177 



178 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

They are called at 6 o'clock in the morning, and furnished 
with tin cups of coffee and rolls of white bread, which are 
carried in buckets and baskets to the cells. They then go to 
prayers in a circular chapel which occupies the dome of the 
building. From there they march in single file with lockstep 
to the workshops, and remain employed until n o'clock, when 
they are given a hearty meal of boiled or roasted beef, mutton 
or some other meat, two vegetables and plenty of bread. At 
six o'clock they have another meal of lighter food, and for 
both they sit at long tables, which occupy the center of each 
corridor. Each prisoner has a tin cup, a tin plate and a knife, 
a fork and a spoon. The waiters, the cooks and all other 
attendants are prisoners detailed for that duty The commis- 
sioners say the food is so good and so abundant that it is a 
great temptation for destitute and lazy criminals to commit 
crimes that will send them back to an institution in which 
they are much better clothed, fed and cared for than when at 
liberty. This criticism has frequently been made, and the 
labor unions are now endeavoring to secure an act of congress 
prohibiting the employment of prisoners on any labor that will 
come in competition with honest artisans outside. 

Over the arched entrance of each corridor and each work- 
shop in large letters are these words : 

"SILENCIO. OBEDIENCIA, TRABAJO." 

which is the sum and substance of the regulations of the insti- 
tution: "Silence. Obedience. Industry." 

Nearly 80 per cent of the prisoners are Indians, either full- 
bloods or half-breeds, with a considerable sprinkling of Chi- 
nese, who constitute about 50,000 of the population of Peru, 
and all come from the most ignorant classes. I saw three or 
four white men who are in for murder. In addition to the 
regular discipline of the institution the spiritual condition of 
the prisoners is given careful attention by the monks of the 
Descalsos, or barefooted brotherhood. The Chinese are 
attended by priests of their own race. There are three or four 
Chinese catholic priests in Lima, all of whom came to this 
country as laborers, were converted, educated and fitted for 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 179 

the priesthood. They labor among the Chinese population 
in the city and on the plantations near by, but not exclusively. 
One of them is connected with .a prominent parish church. 

The rules of the prison prohibit torture. The means of 
discipline are solitary confinement, dark cells, bread and water, 
what are known as the "bars," which keep a man in a stand- 
ing posture, and the dropping of water upon a stone, which is 
the most severe of all in its effects upon the nerves and men- 
tal faculties, and is only used as a last resort. There used to 
be a great deal of cruelty in the prisons of South America 
some years ago, and the police are still guilty of brutal prac- 
tices, not only upon persons who are arrested for crime, but 
also upon witnesses who refuse to testify against their friends, 
and other persons who are arrested, either on suspicion or for 
the purpose of securing information. 

The laws of the country prohibit this under severe penal- 
ties, and the chief of police of Lima is now under investigation 
by the courts for violating them. Some time ago a man of the 
name of Fidel Carceres, a tailor of Lima, while detained as a 
prisoner in one of the police stations, witnessed the torture of 
a woman, and when he was released gave the information to 
the newspapers, which denounced the authorities for permit- 
ting such an outrage, whereupon Carceres was again arrested 
and confined in a dark cell without ventilation or drainage. 
He was convicted on some fictitious charge and sent to jail. 
After his liberation he reported his experience to the labor 
unions, which took up the matter and preferred charges against 
the police of Lima for false imprisonment and for the torture 
of the woman referred to. The chief is now under bonds to 
appear before the Criminal courts, with several officers who 
are implicated with him. 

Horrible tales are told of outrages inflicted upon prisoners 
by local police in the country towns and villages, but the 
national authorities make careful investigations whenever 
charges are preferred, and punish the guilty severely. 

There is a separate prison for women, which is in charge of 
the sisters of charity. 

The chapel of the penitentiary is a noble room of circular 



i8o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

form, with a high dome, and in the center, surrounded by an 
iron railing, is a well which extends to the guardroom below. 
That is now covered with an iron grating, because some years 
ago, while the prisoners were engaged in religious exercises, 
a mutiny broke out and the guards were thrown over and fell 
seventy feet upon the pavement below. 

The altar is handsomely decorated. Bishop Medina 
appeared in his richest episcopal robes at the services that Sun- 
day. He was assisted by three monks from the Descalsos 
monastery, by whom the prisoners had been converted. 
These monks were types of the best blood of Peru, and in 
their manners and demeanor they showed their gentle breed- 
ing. One of them, Friar Saavedra, is considered among the 
handsomest men in Peru, and might sit for a portrait of St. 
Anthony of Padua. He belongs to one of the old patrician 
families of Lima, and his father was appraiser of merchandise 
in the custom house at Callao until he was killed by accident 
several years ago. A packing case filled with explosives was 
accidentally dropped and cost the lives of six men. Another 
of the monks was Friar Chaco-Montufar, of an eminent family 
of Trujillo, which has produced some of the most famous men 
in the republic. One of his brothers is a general in the army. 

These men are highly respected for their piety and their 
self-abnegation, as well as for their ability and their lineage. 
They have devoted their lives to the relief of the poor and to 
work among convicts. Every one speaks in admiration of the 
devotion of the Descalsos monks to the poor, the hungry and 
the sick. They sacrifice all their worldly goods when they 
enter the order and live entirely upon alms. Every day they 
feed 200 or 300 people at the monastery, which stands on the 
outskirts of the city, for which funds are contributed by benev- 
olent people who know of the good they are doing. I was told 
yesterday that Friar Saavedra could raise more money for 
charity among the wealthy classes of Lima than the archbishop 
himself, and that when he called upon a merchant or a banker 
for financial assistance his purpose was never inquired into and 
his request was never refused. 

The charitable institutions of Lima, the hospitals and asy- 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 181 

lums, are in charge of a commission of laymen appointed by 
the government, and the attendants are Descalsos monks and 
sisters of charity. The funds are obtained by subscription and 
a lottery which has drawings twice a week in Lima and once 
a week in Callao. Tickets are sold at the cigar stands and at 
other shops and by peddlers, who are very numerous on the 
street. They haunt the plaza and other public squares, and 
are as vociferous and active as newsboys in the cities of North 
America. Once a week there is usually a grand prize of 
$5,000, with smaller prizes in proportion, running down as low 
as $10. The drawings are supervised by a committee from 
the benevolent society, which sits behind a table in a canvas 
booth and upon a high platform where it can be seen by every- 
body interested. Ivory balls bearing the numbers are placed 
in a barrel which swings on pivots. After they are well 
shaken up the bunghole is opened and an urchin from the 
street is called up, who thrusts in his hand and draws out the 
ball which represents the capital prize. The barrel is again 
shaken up and the other prizes are drawn in order. The suc- 
cessful numbers are announced in a loud voice and published 
in the evening papers, and the prizes are paid the next day at 
the office of the society, which occupies a handsome building 
in one of the principal streets. 

Private lotteries are not permitted, although special lot- 
teries for benevolent purposes are frequent, like one that was 
recently held to raise money to repair the cathedral. The 
profits of the lottery for the Benevolent Society amount to 
several hundred thousand dollars a year and pay nearly the 
entire expense of supporting the free hospitals, asylums and 
other institutions which are usually sustained by the munici- 
pality or the state. The patrons of the lottery are mostly poor 
people who look for the easy road to fortune. Every ticket is 
divided into five parts. A whole ticket costs 50 cents, and a 
single part, which if successful calls for one-fifth of the prize, 
is sold for 10 cents. Wealthy people patronize the god of for- 
tune as well as the poor, and often buy large blocks of tickets. 

The Descalsos, or "barefooted friars," are the most popular 
of all the religious orders in Peru, because they live lives of 



i8 2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

great activity and usefulness, and are really overseers of the 
poor, inspectors of the prisons, managers of the relief and aid 
societies, attendants at asylums and hospitals, and are noted 
for their self-sacrifice and devotion to the sick and the miser- 
able. Most of them are Peruvians, and some of the best fam- 
ilies in the country are represented at the Descalsos monastery. 
They do not preach or carry on any propaganda. When they 
take the vows they turn into the treasury every article of value 
they own, transfer to the proper officer all their property, and 
thereafter live entirely upon alms, which they divide with the 
poor. They wear frocks of heavy brown woolen material, 
straw hats and sandals of leather which protect the soles of the 
feet. The term Descalsos means "without shoes." 

Their work is allotted by the father superior, according to 
their talents and adaptability. Some of them are assigned to 
the prisons, some to the hospitals and other public institu- 
tions, and to various branches of their relief work which they 
carry on. In the market every morning you will see them 
going about with baskets collecting contributions from the 
butchers and bakers and hucksters, which are used to feed the 
poor, and are always given cheerfully because people know 
that funds intrusted to the Descalsos monks are never mis- 
applied. They eat the same food they furnish to the hungry 
that come to their doors, and there is no wine cellar in their 
monastery. If they ask a friend to dine he must accept their 
frugal fare, which is usually a stew of meat, with vegetables 
and fruit from their own garden. 

Their monastery, which lies at the base of the mountain 
San Cristoval in the northern suburbs of the city, presents a 
striking contrast to other monastic institutions. While the 
San Francisco, the Dominican and Augustine monasteries are 
notable examples of ancient Spanish architecture, and are dec- 
orated in a sumptuous manner with paintings, carved wood, 
tiles and other embellishments more or less in a state of decay 
and dilapidation, with filthy corners and dusty corridors, 
Descalsos is extremely plain, but as neat as a New England 
dairy. There are no fine pictures, no gilded altars, no embroi- 
dered vestments, no carved oak or silver plate, but everything 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 183 

is severe, simple and unostentatious. The only attempts at 
ornamentation that I saw were bunches of fresh flowers placed 
before the crucifixes and the images of the saints, and these 
no doubt were the most grateful of offerings. The religious 
orders frequently receive legacies from rich benefactors, which 
are invested in the embellishment of their churches and mon- 
asteries, and sometimes in profitable property, city real estate 
or haciendas in the country, but when the Descalsos brothers 
receive a gift it is turned into cash and expended as needed 
for the benefit of the poor. They have no property, either as 
a community or as individuals. If they should be sold out 
to-day their earthly possessions would not bring enough to 
bury them, as one of the brothers told me. It is the only 
monastic order in America that is entirely without property, 
and depends upon the providence of God from day to day. 

In almost every corridor, in the refectory, the reception 
rooms, the little chapel and wherever the eye may wander, 
these words are seen : 

"Amemos a Dios glorificadose. " 

which means in English, "Let us love God glorified. " On the 
blank walls are painted other inscriptions of a similar charac- 
ter, so that the minds of the monks may be always directed to 
their duties. This is a sample : 

"Vanidad de Vanidades! 
Es lo que el mundo te ofrece 
En el trance de le muerto 
Como lei humo de sparece. ' ' 

which literally translated reads : "Vanities of vanities! That 
is what the world offers you, but in the trance of death it dis- 
appears like smoke. ' ' 

Behind their high blue walls the monks have a beautiful 
garden where they raise all kinds of fruit and vegetables, 
grapes, bananas, figs, oranges, pomegranates and everything 
else that this climate will produce, and their aesthetic instincts 
have found expression in an abundance of flowers, which are 
carefully tended and thrive well. They sell vegetables, fruit, 



184 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

milk, bread and wine. Nearly all the work in the garden is 
done by the lay brethren under the direction of one of the 
monks, who is said to be an accomplished botanist, and they 
depend largely upon it for the food which they furnish the 
poor. Many people question the expediency of the relief work 
of the barefooted friars and declare that they are making pau- 
pers by offering food to all who apply for it without regard to 
their necessities ; that many families who are able-bodied and 
ought to work for a living depend entirely upon the monks, 
which of course encourages other lazy people to imitate their 
example ; but one of the monks explained that they never 
questioned the motives or circumstances of people who 
applied to them for relief, but whatever they had they gave 
with a free and willing hand, depending upon God to pro- 
tect them from impostors and to see that their labors were 
rewarded. 

"No person was ever refused food at our door," he said, 
"and we prefer not to investigate the applications that are 
made to us for relief, because it would take so much time, and 
in a measure diminish our usefulness. If we were inquisitive 
many worthy people would starve rather than come to us. 
Those who furnish us the means of carrying on these charities 
are satisfied with our methods, and therefore I do not see why 
others should complain. ' ' 

And he was right. Public confidence in the integrity and 
the usefulness of the Descalsos brotherhood is so great that 
nobody ever inquires into the distribution of the funds that are 
intrusted to them, and their applications for assistance are 
seldom denied. When they need money they go to the busi- 
ness men of the city and others who are known to be of philan- 
thropic disposition and ask for what they want, which is gen- 
erally given them. Sometimes they explain the purpose to 
which the contribution will be devoted, but usually not. 

At 2 o'clock every day there is an interesting spectacle out- 
side the entrance of the Descalsos monastery, 200 or 300 unfor- 
tunates — the poor, the sick, the lame and the blind, cripples 
and consumptives, ragged children and withered crones — 
gather with buckets and baskets to share in the daily dis- 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 185 

tribution of food. In the convent kitchen great caldrons of 
"chupe" or "cazuela," the national dish of Peru, a stew of 
mutton or beef, with bread and vegetables, have been cooked 
by the monks, and the nourishing composition is brought out 
of the gate in enormous copper buckets which are placed in a 
row. The beggars gather around them, the children in front, 
then the women and the men, and at a sign from a benevolent 
old monk who wears a big apron and superintends the distri- 
bution they clasp their hands, lift their eyes to heaven, and 
murmur a prayer of thanksgiving for what they are about to 
receive. Then they cross themselves and hold out their buck- 
ets, which the padre fills with a big ladle. 

While he is serving the stew he keeps up a continual round 
of admonition and reproof. He seemed to know all of his cus- 
tomers, and, while I could not understand what he said, it was 
easy to tell from the changing expressions upon their faces 
when he was comforting and when he was scolding them. For 
the little ones he seemed to have a soft hand and a kind heart, 
particularly for the "ninas," the little girls, who were pushed 
aside by the eager throng of boys and women. Occasionally, 
when some greedy person would interfere with the comfort of 
others, he would put his left hand upon his hip, and, shaking 
his ladle in his right, would scold like a schoolmaster. There 
was a humorous twinkle in his eye, and he occasionally cast a 
glance over toward our way to see how the group of gringoes 
were enjoying the scene. 

After the last drop of the stew had been distributed, and I 
asked permission to take his photograph, he threw up his hand 
and declared that it was the last thing in the world that I ought 
to do. There were handsomer monks in the monastery, he 
said, and I ought not to waste any films on him. 

It seems a little odd to find the religious and patriotic tend- 
encies of the people expressed in the nomenclature of their 
streets, such as the Street of the Good Shepherd, the Street of 
the Holy Ghost, the Street of the Mother of Mercy, the Street 
of St. John the Evangelist, the Street of the 28th of July, the 
Streets of the 1st of March, the 8th of September, and the 
5th of May. 



186 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The city of Lima and the city of Cordova, in the Argentine 
Republic, both claim the honor of having the first printing 
press in the new world, and both of them were probably estab- 
lished about the same date by the Jesuit missionaries. 

One of the great institutions of Lima in former days was 
the monastery of San Francisco, which was founded simulta- 
neously with the old palace and the cathedral, and has always 
been the largest and the richest monastic institution in Amer- 
ica. When Pizarro came to Peru the chaplain of his expedi- 
tion was Friar Valverde, a Franciscan monk who led the 
massacre of Atahualpa's court at Cajamarca, and whose zeal in 
behalf of his religion was not surpassed by the avarice of the 
soldiers for plunder. In fact, Valverde was about as active as 
any of the party, and when anything was going on in the way 
of either secular or spiritual interest he was right behind his 
chief. When the city of Lima was laid out he asked for land 
for a monastery, and Pizarro told him he could have as much 
as he could pace off in a single night along the banks of the 
River Rimac, northeast of the locations that had been selected 
for the plaza, the palace and the cathedral. 

Father Valverde was a hustler, as I have said, and he never 
worked harder than he did that night. Starting from the 
bank of the river, he went eastward, carrying rawhide thongs 
to mark his trail, and when the sun rose he had inclosed sev- 
eral acres of the most valuable city lots. The monastery was 
erected on the corner nearest the palace. From the officers 
and soldiers of the expedition he obtained large sums of money, 
in addition to the plunder he had already secured, and the 
institution was originally laid out upon a magnitude unsur- 
passed by any of the monasteries of Europe, and enlarged from 
time to time. Much of the material was sent from Spain, and 
among other things a quantity of beautiful tiles, with which 
the cloisters are decorated. When they came there was 
nobody in the colony to set them. One of the soldiers who 
had been condemned to death for the murder of a comrade 
made it known to the monks that he was able to do that sort 
of masonry, and he kept up the job as long as he could, 
thereby postponing his execution indefinitely. The work was 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 187 

very "badly done, but the beauty of the tiles has added to the 
fame of the institution. 

One of the legends is that after the first building was fin- 
ished and a colony of monks had come over from the old world 
to occupy it, Pizarro was invited down to make an inspection. 
When he had been shown through the cloisters and cells and 
the chapel, and had admired everything, he reminded Friar 
Valverde in a jocular way that the monks had no title to the 
property, and could not get one until they were able to offer 
him some compensation. The monk was a diplomat, and, 
handing Pizarro a cup of chocolate, remarked : 

"Here is the price. The Savior Himself said that whoever 
offers a cup of cold water in His name to the least of His crea- 
tures offers it to Him, and I have given you a cup of chocolate. " 

The walls of the monastery are nine feet thick, made of 
adobe, and have successfully withstood all the many earth- 
quakes that have visited Lima. The ceilings of the corridors, 
the cloisters and the chapels were once covered with most 
exquisite carved oak and mahogany wood, but no care has 
been taken of it, and it has been gradually falling to pieces for 
the last 100 years. In fact the whole institution is in a state 
of advanced decay and dilapidation. The walls of the first 
cloisters were covered with paintings of more or less merit, 
which were brought from Europe in the early days and pre- 
sented by devotees of the Franciscan order from time to time. 
Until lately no care was taken of them, but twenty-five or 
thirty years ago one of the friars made falling screens of can- 
vas, which afforded them some protection, but it was too late 
to save them. 

Some years ago I found in the attic of the tower of the 
monastery a pile of the most remarkable old missals. There 
is nothing in the British museum, or the Biblioteca of Paris, or 
the Ambrosian library of Milan, to compare with them, 
although those three institutions have the best collections of 
illuminated work on parchment. The age of the missals is 
unknown, but it is certain that they were made by monks in 
Spain before the discovery of America, because the decora- 
tions are entirely Moorish, and Ferdinand and Isabella issued 



188 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

an edict forbidding the use of Moorish'designs in art and archi- 
tecture. That makes them more than 400 years old, yet the 
colors are as brilliant as when they were new. 

I secured one of the best examples and brought it home 
with me in 1885. In visiting the monastery again in 1899 I 
found that the remainder of these priceless works of art had 
been entirely ruined by having large sheets of modern music 
pasted over the illuminated pages. The monk who was escort- 
ing me through the convent admitted that it was a sacrilegious 
act, and deplored it, but explained that the prior cared nothing 
for art or beauty, and utilized them because the parchment 
was stiff and easily handled. He informed me, too, that one 
of the finest of the missals was taken to the United States some 
years ago, and he understood that it had been exhibited at the 
World's Fair; but I did not think it advisable to explain who 
was the present owner, especially when he added that it was 
the most precious volume in the collection, having belonged 
to St. Francis himself. 

With perfect ingenuousness the monks show visitors the 
cell in which St. Francis lived, the retreat in which he spent 
weeks and months of contemplation, a big blue wooden cross 
fastened to the wall of a little closet where he used to scourge 
himself and do penance, and a little chapel they have erected 
in the little room where he died. They have the chair in 
which he used to sit, his rosary and crucifix, the hair shirt he 
wore on his deathbed, his coffin, which is covered with red 
velvet and gold braid, and an ivory model of the ship which 
carried his remains to Rome, said to have been a present to 
the monastery from one of the kings of Spain. They tell you 
that his skull is buried under the altar of the church, they 
show you the skull of Friar Juan Gomez, a monk who took 
care of him during his last illness, and point out a well where 
he performed a miracle a few nights before his death. It 
appears that when St. Francis awakened from his sleep about 
2 o'clock in the morning he was hungry and expressed a crav- 
ing for fish. Friar Juan explained that he could not get fish 
at that time in the night, and St. Francis then asked for a 
drink of water. The monk went out to the patio, dipped the 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 189 

bucket in the well, and when he brought it up it contained half 
a dozen beautiful pejerray, the most delicate fish known to 
Peru, which correspond with our speckled brook trout. 

They have a picture of the deathbed scene of St. Francis 
painted in oil by a famous Peruvian artist, and a correspond- 
ing piece representing his funeral in the plaza of Lima, with 
the archbishop and viceroy in the foreground, and over the 
entrance to the room in which he died is this inscription : 

"Saint Francis Solano, native of Montilla, in the kingdom 
of Spain, lived in this cloister. Every day in the morning he 
used to go with his violin to the orchard to sing hymns, and 
was accompanied by a vast number of singing birds, resting 
on his head and shoulders, near a palm tree that was there at 
that time. He died in the adjoining room that is to-day a 
chapel, on the 14th of July, 1610, at the age of 62 years." 

The monks looked upon me as a hopeless heretic when I 
explained to them that the real St. Francis, the founder of the 
Franciscan order, lived and died many centuries before the 
monastery in Peru could have been founded by his devotees, 
and they would not yield an atom. They declared that these 
were the relics of the only genuine St. Francis, and that all 
others were imitations. 

St. Francis Solano, however, was an inmate of this monas- 
tery during the latter part of the sixteenth and the first part of 
the seventeenth century, and was famous for his piety and 
eloquence as a preacher. He was also a musician of remark- 
able ability, and it is true, according to history of the time, 
that when he went into the garden with his violin flocks of 
birds surrounded him and sung to his music. While he was in 
the Franciscan monastery the city of Lima and the province of 
Peru were shaken by disastrous earthquakes. Many people 
were killed, a large amount of property was destroyed, and the 
entire population was thoroughly frightened. Friar Solano 
took advantage of that opportunity to preach to thousands in 
the plaza from the cathedral steps. He pronounced the earth- 
quakes the judgment of God for the sins of the people, and 
brought about a universal revival of religion and morals, which 
caused him to be canonized after his death. His sanctity hav- 



i 9 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ing been established, he was made a saint by Pope Clement in 

1675. 

There used to be several hundred monks in the San Fran- 
cisco monastery, but there are now only sixty-six. They have 
a school for small boys and another for novitiates, who are 
required to endure much discipline and mortification of the 
flesh before they are admitted to the order. Through bad 
management the order has lost a large amount of its property. 
The government has confiscated more than half the monastery, 
and used it for military barracks and other purposes, while 
several sugar estates that formerly belonged to the monks 
have slipped out of their possession. 

Old monasteries are used for all sorts of purposes in Peru. 
The national library and the Geographic Society occupy the 
former headquarters of the Society of Jesus. This is one of 
the most famous buildings in South America, and was consid- 
ered an ideal of splendor 200 years ago, although now it looks 
rusty and dusty and smells as if it were older than it really is. 
The ceilings of carved mahogany are greatly admired. The 
railway stations are ancient convents which still retain their 
names. The Oroya road has "Deserparado, " which formerly 
sheltered the Little Sisters of the Poor. The English road 
has utilized the Convent of St. John the Baptist, and its 
station is known by that name. Those who go by train to the 
suburban town of Chorillos take the cars at the Incarnation 
depot. Most of the schools and military barracks were for- 
merly occupied by the monastic orders. 

There is a pretty wedding ceremony in Peru — its origin and 
the significance I could not learn. Some say it is a Biblical 
and others that it is an old Moorish custom. It is customary 
for the padrina or godfather of the groom to hand the padrina 
or godfather of the bride a tray containing thirteen pieces of 
money. It may be gold or it may be silver, but there must 
be thirteen pieces, because Christ and the twelve apostles 
make that number. The godfather hands the tray to the 
bride and she hands it to the priest and the priest spends the 
money for charity. 

The only American woman ever canonized was Isabel 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 191 

Flores, daughter of Gaspar Flores, a Spanish musketeer who 
settled in Peru after a term of service in the army, and 
became a miner. His wife was Maria Olive, a native of Peru. 
Tradition says that the color of the child's cheeks won for her 
the familiar name of Rose when she was a tottling, and that it 
clung to her until it was sanctified by the church when she 
was canonized at St. Peter's, Rome, April 12, 1671. Part of 
her remains lie in an urn on the altar of the old church of 
Santa Domingo, which has the handsomest spire I have seen, 
and part of them are in the chapel of a convent that was 
erected in her honor, to which they were removed in April, 
1886, the third centennial of her birth, and the occasion was 
one of the grandest demonstrations ever witnessed in South 
America. It was held under the auspices of the government, 
the expenses were paid by the public treasury, and it was 
attended by religious dignitaries from all parts of Central and 
South America, and celebrated as a holiday throughout Peru. 

The remains of Santa Rosa were taken from their resting 
place and borne in solemn procession throughout the streets. 
Flowers were scattered upon the pavement over which the 
cortege was to pass, and from the windows and balconies of 
the houses hung draperies of silk and velvet. The urn was 
carried upon the shoulders of Dominican monks, who were 
followed by a long procession of priests and members of 
monastic orders, several regiments of military, the fire brigade 
and members of religious and benevolent societies. Some of 
the people whose houses fronted the line of procession spread 
carpets and rugs upon the pavement and from several places 
white doves were released as it passed by. The urn was 
taken to the church of Santa Rosa of the Fathers, where it 
remained all night. The next day it was taken to the 
cathedral for the final ceremonies. The president of the 
republic, the members of his cabinet, the justices of the 
Supreme court, the members of both houses of congress and 
other dignitaries joined in the procession and followed 
the remains back to the Church of Santo Domingo. They 
were again deposited underneath the grand altar, where they 
had lain for nearly three centuries. 



i 9 2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Santa Rosa manifested a deep, religious spirit from her 
earliest years, and when she was 16 she devoted her life to the 
care of the sick and the poor, living as a hermit in a little 
cabin in the center of the city. A model of the cabin now 
stands within the walls of an unfinished church commenced in 
1864 in her honor, and abandoned for lack of funds. It 
encloses a little garden which the attendant says she used to 
cultivate, a well in which she dropped the key to an iron belt 
which she locked about her waist to signify her marriage to 
the church, and the tree under which she used to talk to the 
birds in their own language. An iron tablet with an inscrip- 
tion marks the spot where she spent nights in prayer and 
fasting for the redemption of mankind and various relics are 
retained of her by the sisters of Santo Domingo, whose lowly 
habit she assumed. She was only 31 years of age when she 
died, in 161 7. Proofs of her sanctity were established by the 
archbishop, and in 1625 Pope Urban sent an ecclesiastical 
commission to Lima to carry out the necessary formalities. 
Their report was submitted to the college of cardinals, which 
gave the final sanction, and the ceremony of beatification of 
Saint Rose of Lima was celebrated by Pope Clement IX. 

It is said that the peasant women prefer Chinese for hus- 
bands to men of their own race, because of their sobriety, 
kindness and fidelity. The peasants, or cholos, are lax in the 
observance of their marriage vows, and domestic obligations 
rest lightly upon them. If a peasant leaves one place to find 
employment in another he generally abandons his wife and 
family and takes up with a new woman as soon as he becomes 
acquainted. This is the custom throughout the country. The 
women and children remain as permanent fixtures on the 
plantations and in the towns, while the men are restless and 
migratory, and often are compelled to go away because of 
trouble. But the Chinese are not so fickle. They do not 
require as much work of their wives and feed and clothe them 
better, so that a cholo woman prefers a Chinese husband 
when she can get one, although the Church and the civil 
authorities are seldom called in to solemnize their relations. 

The Chinese have made great progress in that country. 



THE MONKS AND THE MONASTERIES 193 

There are two wealthy business firms in Lima whose mem- 
bers were brought out from Canton under contract, and who 
served their time as coolies. There is a Chinese club and 
theater and two benevolent societies in the city. 

Up at Chicla, one day, we got a glimpse of a curious cus- 
tom among the peasants. Squatting in the churchyards in a 
row were ten or twelve women from the mountains, while 
opposite and facing them were an equal number of surly-look- 
ing men, also seated in a row upon the ground, with their 
backs against a wall. Between the two was a rude cross, held 
upright by a few stones laid against its base, and the arms 
were trimmed with artifical flowers. The alcalde of the place 
explained to us that the men had been brought there upon 
complaint of their wives for discipline ; that they were charged 
with drunkenness, abuse, neglect and improvidence, and that 
the village priest himself, representing the spiritual and tem- 
poral authority of the parish would sit as a court of cassation 
to hear the evidence, render judgment and administer correc- 
tion the next morning at 8 o'clock. When asked what sort of 
correction would be administered he shook a stout stick which 
he carried as a cane in his hand and remarked that he would 
lay that on the backs of the worst ones, while the others would 
be sentenced to various forms of penance. 

Some of the women were young and might have been good 
looking if they had been properly dressed, but they wore the 
roughest kind of garments, were barefooted and filthy, and 
their faces expressed little intelligence. 

There is a notable institution in Lima, which you can see 
from the street cars on the way to the American legation. It 
is a gloomy-looking old building, with high walls that are 
painted a bright blue, and is known as the Refugio de San 
Jose\ Here a married woman may find refuge from a cruel 
and wicked husband, and here a husband may place a way- 
ward or an incompatible wife, with the approval of the priest, 
for discipline and religious training to improve her temper 
and morals. Divorce is unknown except on the rarest occa- 
sions when a dispensation must be obtained from the Vatican 
at Rome ; but an unfaithful wife can be sentenced to perpet- 



i 9 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ual imprisonment in the Refugio de San Jose* by the arch- 
bishop, when the evidence of her infidelity is made clear to 
him. The husband, however, is required to pay a certain 
sum monthly or quarterly to the sisters in charge of the con- 
vent for her support. 

During her imprisonment a woman is not allowed to com- 
municate with people outside or leave her cell without 
permission from the mother superior, and is required to 
perform religious duties several hours a day. If she shows 
signs of repentance and her husband is willing to take her 
back, or her parents agree to take care of her, she may be 
released and return to her home, with the approval of the 
archbishop. There are a good many stories about women 
who have been improperly imprisoned in this institution by 
jealous husbands. 

There is no such institution for the discipline of husbands 
who are unfaithful to their wives. That goes without saying. 
The woman has always been wrong, ever since that affair of 
the apple. 



XIII 

THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 

About thirty years ago there appeared in Peru a fugitive 
from justice, who had been involved in difficulties which he 
could not overcome. His name was Henry Meigs, and he 
was a partner of Ralston, the president of the Bank of Califor- 
nia, who drowned himself at the Golden Gate to escape the 
consequences of his speculations. Meigs had more determi- 
nation, and, when his losses were discovered, he climbed to the 
deck of a schooner that was in San Francisco bay, bought her 
and sailed for South America, bringing considerable wealth 
and irresistible Yankee enterprise. He landed in Chile and 
prospered there. He then went to Peru and applied his 
energy and genius to the development of a railway system 
which had been projected by President Pardo — the best 
executive the republic ever had. Meigs sent back money to 
California to reimburse every one who had lost by his finan- 
cial transactions, but remained in Peru until he died, the most 
influential, the richest, and the most famous man of his time 
in South America. His body lies under a mound and a simple 
cross at Villegas, two miles from Callao, by the side of the 
railway track. It has been truly said that the Oroya railroad, 
which has been counted the eighth wonder of the world, is his 
monument, and nothing elsewhere compares with it as a 
triumph of engineering genius and human enterprise. 

It leaves the port of Callao at tidewater, and in a distance 
of 106 miles reaches an elevation of 15,665 feet, where, by 
the Gallera tunnel, it pierces the summit of Mount Meigs, 
2,000 feet higher; then descends into the great plateau 
between the two ranges of the Andes and follows the valley 
of the Jauja to its terminus at the little town of Oroya, 136 
miles from the coast, and 12,178 feet above the sea. 

i95 



196 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

An oroya is a curious suspension bridge used by the Tncas 
to cross streams that cannot be forded. It is a cable of braided 
llama hide stretched taut, to which is attached a basket drawn 
back and forth over the gorge by means of other ropes of hide 
similar to the car used by the life-saving service to rescue 
persons from wrecked vessels on the coast. At an oroya that 
crosses the Jauja river, a little town has been built up, which 
has become a considerable market for the exchange of prod- 
ucts and the entrepot for llama caravans from the interior. 
This is the present terminus of the Meigs road, which was 
intended, before the money gave out, to extend to the famous 
mines of Cerro de Pasco, about fifty-one miles farther. The 
line has been surveyed, and much of the grading completed, 
and Ernest Thorndike, an American, has undertaken to build 
the remainder of the track. At present freight is transported 
on the backs of llamas. 

Shortly before reaching the tunnel of Gallera the road passes 
the mines of Casapalca, now operated with considerable profit 
by Backus & Johnston, a firm of enterprising Americans, who 
have erected modern smelters under the direction of Captain 
Guyer of Montana. This is said to be the highest smelter in 
the world, being 13,606 feet above the sea, and Gallera, a little 
village of about 200 Indians (15,565 feet) is the highest place 
where steam is used as a motive power. Alta del Crucero, 
the highest point upon the Puna road to Bolivia, is 14,660 feet. 
Cerro de Pasco is 14,293, and Cuzco 11,003 ^ eet > ^ ut these are 
not the highest inhabited places in Peru. Vicharayas, 15,950 
feet, and Muscapata, 16,158 feet, are thriving mining settle- 
ments, and there are tambos occupied by shepherds even 
higher. 

The Oroya railroad cost $27,600,000 up to the time of the 
death of Henry Meigs, when it reached only to the town of 
Chicla, eighty-six miles from Callao. The remaining fifty 
miles are said to have cost over $6,000,000, making a total of 
about $34,000,000 for a track 136 miles long, an average of 
$250,000 a mile, but a considerable portion of that money was 
expended for purposes other than material and construction. 
There is a difference of opinion as to the net value of the 



THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 197 

benefits derived by this country from the example and meth- 
ods of Mr. Meigs. He believed that money was omnipotent, 
and never counted the cost of any purpose upon which his 
mind was fixed. He plunged Peru into a debt of $250,000,- 
000, and established a standard of political and commercial 
morals which was as reckless as the engineering task he 
undertook in the construction of the Oroya road. When he 
determined to build a railroad from the ocean through the 
Andes, no obstacle was too great for him to overcome. He 
selected his route and applied money and science with equal 
audacity until he accomplished the task, without regard to the 
ordinary economies observed in practical business life. 

About thirty miles from the coast the track enters a canyon, 
through which the river Rimac tumbles a continuous cataract 
of foam from a height of 16,000 feet in a distance of thirty- 
eight miles as the crow flies. The railway cannot rise as 
rapidly as the river falls, and therefore engineering science 
suggested a series of switchbacks, or reverse tangents, where 
the canyon is too narrow for curves. So the track zigzags up 
the mountain sides, running sometimes forward and some- 
times backward, until the summit is won, so that you often 
see four or five lines of parallel track, one above the 
other, like terraces. At several points, to make these grades, 
it was necessary to bridge the canyons, so a framework of 
iron is stretched across like a bracket clinging to the mighty 
rocks. 

Nearly the entire distance the roadbed was made by blast- 
ing. The mountains are of granite, torn and twisted, rent 
and shattered by prodigious volcanic upheavals that have 
taken place there. There is little earth in sight for nearly all 
the distance, except what was hauled in from the valley below 
for ballast, and the track rests upon shelves carved in the gran- 
ite cliffs with drill and dynamite. There are seventy-eight 
tunnels, whose aggregate length is 36,000 feet, the longest 
being that of Gallera, which is 3,800 feet in length. 

Occasionally the gorge widens, where little villages of 
Indians are found cultivating the silt that has been washed 
down from above. But they get very little sunlight within 



i 9 8 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

those mighty granite walls, that are seamed and wrinkled like 
an old man's face, and broken here and there by furrows that 
have been made by the falling water when the winter snow 
melts on the mountain tops. The rainfall is insignificant, but 
occasionally nature indulges in a dramatic performance which 
leaves horror and devastation in its wake. A few years ago 
the Verrugas bridge, a beautiful piece of ironwork which 
spanned the chasm, was suddenly washed away by a cloud- 
burst, which came without warning, and in a few moments was 
gone, but the force of the water was so great as to carry away 
a structure that cost nearly $1,000,000 and was rooted in the 
eternal rock. 

The bridge was replaced at a heavy cost the next year, the 
material and the men being brought from Trenton, and nearly 
all of them died from a mysterious disease known as the Ver- 
rugas, because it is peculiar to that spot in the valley through 
which the bridge is erected. It is found in three or four 
other similar localities in the mountain gorges, but here it 
attacks every unacclimated person, usually with fatal results. 
Captain Phelps, who was United States minister to Peru dur- 
ing the Arthur administration, and Lieutenant Nye, his naval 
attache, both died in 1885 of the disease, which they contracted 
while on a hunting expedition along the Oroya road. 

It is a disease of the blood. The first symptoms are fever 
and pain in the back of the head, with a terrible thirst 
after a few hours' delirium. The veins begin to swell the 
second day and an eruption follows; the distended blood- 
vessels, breaking, run into each other and form swellings along 
the veins and arteries, in which the poison seems to be con- 
centrated. If these swellings appear during the earlier period 
of the disease they can be tapped and the poison released, but 
if it remains in the blood the result is fatal. The disease is 
contagious by contact. Physicians say that it is caused by a 
germ that can be inhaled or absorbed into the system with 
food or water, and can be communicated through the saliva. 
Its origin is supposed to be in the decomposition of the soil in 
the Verrugas valley, and one or two other points in Peru. 

About two years ago a young doctor of Lima, named Car- 



THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 199 

rion, attempted to solve the problem and inoculated himself 
with blood taken from the veins of a man who was suffering 
from the disease. His purpose was to study the symptoms 
upon himself and the effect of various remedies, but shortly 
after the first symptoms appeared he was delirious, and died in 
a few days. The medical fraternity in Peru erected a monu- 
ment to his memory as a martyr to the cause of science. 

Every man employed in the erection of the Verrugas 
bridge, except a few Indian laborers who were native to the 
valley, was seized by the disease, although the water they 
drank and used in cooking was all brought from Lima and 
extraordinary precautions were taken to protect them. 

There is another disease called "sirroche," which attacks 
persons who remove rapidly from a lower to a higher altitude. 
This prevails throughout the Andes, and although it is seldom 
fatal, it reduces the vitality of delicate persons so that other 
diseases of a more serious character develop. Sirroche is 
attended with dizziness, cold hands and feet, nausea and a rush 
to the head of blood, which often bursts from the nostrils and 
ears. There is no cure for it any more than for seasickness, 
and persons who are attacked simply have to lie down and 
endure it until they can be taken to lower ground, where they 
soon recover their normal condition. 

It is estimated that the construction of the Oroya railroad 
cost Peru 7,000 lives from pestilence and accidents, landslides 
and explosions. The cost in human life was no obstacle, 
however. When a sufficient number of peons could not be 
obtained Chinese coolies were imported. 

Throughout the entire gorge it was necessary to lower men 
by ropes over the edges of the precipices to drill holes in the 
rocks and charge them with blasting powder in order to get a 
place to stand on, and this reckless method of construction 
was attended by frequent casualties. A curious accident 
occurred at a place called Tambo de Viso Puente. The water 
for the construction hands had to be brought down the valley 
in pipes and a plumber was soldering a leak when a caravan 
of burros loaded with powder came up the trail. One of them 
rubbed against the plumber, who impatiently struck at the 



2oo BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

animal with his hot iron, which, in some way, came in contact 
with the powder and caused an explosion that blew a gang of 
300 or 400 workmen and the entire train of burros over the 
precipice into a chasm 3,000 feet below. 

The scenic grandeur of the Andes is nowhere more impress- 
ive than along the canyon of the Rimac River, through which 
this railroad runs, and one can obtain here better than any- 
where else an idea of the struggle which the Incas made to 
sustain themselves among these inhospitable mountains. A 
survey of their remains justifies the estimates that have been 
made of their enormous population, and the people who for 
centuries herded in these narrow valleys left traces of industry 
and patience which have a pathos as well as a deep ethnolog- 
ical interest. They built their dwellings upon the rocks and 
carried their dead to be buried in the desert on the sea coast 
in order to utilize every inch of soil in the mountains for 
agriculture. They terraced every hill and mountain side like 
the steps of a mighty stairway. They filled with soil every 
crevice in the rocks and brought guano from the islands of the 
sea to fertilize their hanging gardens until not an inch of 
surface that could grow a stalk of maize was left unproductive. 

Their irrigation system shows engineering skill as great as 
that which made the Oroya railroad famous. Their acequias, 
which carried water to the thirsty crops for 1,000 years, are 
still visible in every direction, and some of them are yet in 
use by the Indians, who grow corn, wheat and potatoes on the 
mighty slopes. The ditches cling around the hills, sustained 
by walls of masonry and are frequently carried through tun- 
nels. Dams and reservoirs were erected to collect the water 
that filtered down from the melting snows, and it was distrib- 
uted by regulations similar to those that govern the present 
generation. 

In this struggle for existence the Incas established and 
sustained a government by which the equal rights of every 
human being were recognized. By the logic of nature the 
sun, which rarely penetrates this gloomy canyon, and the great 
sea, which impressed the dweller in the mountains with rever- 
ence and awe, were looked upon as the sources of life and 



THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 201 

happiness, and they, with the Creator, were deified in a trinity 
before whom the empire bowed. 

Out in the Rocky mountains we often hear of the difficulty 
of "farming the scenery," but in the Rimac valley such enter- 
prises were not found unprofitable by the Incas. Their little 
farms stood on end in many places and hung with such narrow 
margins that we wonder the mighty winds which sweep down 
the gorges did not blow them away. Although the mountains 
look so brown and bare, they are not denuded of all vegeta- 
tion. The hoofs of goats and burros hunting for food on the 
hillsides have produced an effect which suggests the wrinkles 
on an alligator skin, and a number of wild flowers modestly 
contribute to the decoration of the rugged landscape. Pink 
marguerites, wild heliotrope, foxglove, ragged robins, mustard 
flowers, buttercups, wild geranium, which the natives call 
maniarrillon, the old-fashioned lady slipper, which they call 
cancelleria, and a beautiful lily which appears on St. John's 
day and is called amancaja — all these can be found in the most 
unexpected places, smiling as cheerfully and shedding a 
perfume as sweet as they might offer in the most encourag- 
ing surroundings. 

About thirty miles from Lima a little town called Chosica 
has become famous as a health resort, and is much sought by 
people of the city in both summer and winter because of its 
even and delicious temperature. Fifty miles farther on, and 
8,000 feet above the sea, is Matucana, another favorite stop- 
ping place for invalids, where the atmosphere and the tem- 
perature are said always to be the same. There are several 
smaller towns at intervals, from which wool, ore, vegetables 
and other produce are shipped to Lima, but the railway could 
never be made self-supporting by its local traffic. It is useful 
and necessary for the transportation of merchandise and min- 
erals between the mining settlements in the interior and the 
sea, but the cost of maintenance makes dividends impossible. 

About ten years ago a syndicate of capitalists organized by 
Michael P. Grace of New York and Lord Donoughmore of 
London, assumed the entire foreign debt of Peru, which 
amounted to several hundred million dollars, and received as 



202 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

compensation a lease for sixty-six years of all the government 
railways, with a mileage of 810 miles, which cost nearly 
$87,000,000, with the stipulation that the syndicate would 
improve and extend them by at least 350 miles. In addition 
to the railways the corporation obtained a similar lease of the 
docks at all the principal ports except Callao, the exclusive 
right of navigation on Lake Titicaca, all the guano except that 
on the Chincha Islands, and the privilege of working the 
famous Cerro de Pasco mines, which have the reputation of 
being among the richest in the world. Peru agreed to pay 
an annual subsidy for thirty years of $400,000 gold, which was 
to represent the interest upon money borrowed by the corpo- 
ration for the repair and extension of the railroads. 

The syndicate redeemed the bonds of the government that 
were outstanding and released Peru from all its foreign 
obligations. It took charge of the railways and immediately 
added twenty-five miles to the southern road toward Cuzco, 
and extended the famous Oroya road from the town of Chicla 
to Oroya, thus giving an outlet to the famous Casapalca mines, 
operated by Backus & Johnston, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, 
who have erected an extensive modern smelter near by; but 
no further railway construction has been carried out as stipu- 
lated in the contract. Now the Peruvian corporation and the 
government are in a stubborn quarrel, each claiming that the 
other has failed to observe its provisions and has been guilty 
of bad faith. 

The Cerro de Pasco mines were worked by the Jesuits and 
yielded hundreds of millions of dollars under the most primi- 
tive methods of extracting and reducing the ore. They were 
discovered by an Indian shepherd who felt cold one night 
while he was watching his sheep and piled together a few 
stones under the lee of which he built a fire. In the morning 
he noticed that the heat had melted one of the stones and a 
glistening substance had appeared upon it. He took it home 
and showed it to the priest. The priest took charge of the 
sample and from 1630 to 1824, while the records were kept by 
the church, that Indian's accidental discovery resulted in the 
extraction of 27,200 tons of pure silver 



THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 203 

The ore is not in fissure veins, but is similar to the carbon- 
ates of Leadville, and experts claim that they can work it for 
$3 a ton. The value of the tailings which the priests and 
Indians left during three centuries is said to be from $40 to 
$100 a ton, if they could be reached by machinery, or facili- 
ties for transportation. 

A large part of the Cerro de Pasco district is now occupied 
by native miners, who are pegging away in the old-fashioned 
way, losing as much as they gain, and securing about one- 
quarter of the profit they might enjoy if they could have the 
use of improved machinery. There are also a number of old 
mines which were worked by the Jesuits during colonial times 
and afterward by the government, but have been given up 
since silver became so abundant elsewhere and have been 
allowed to fill with water. It is estimated that $750,000 would 
clean up the old mines and put them in working order, but it 
is useless to spend money thsre without a railroad to haul in 
the machinery and haul out the ore, or the bullion. 

There is no limit to the mining possibilities of Peru. The 
mineral deposits have never been measured, but everybody 
concedes that the country is, in all sorts of precious and useful 
metals, beyond comparison. But Peru will never be anything 
until it has transportation facilities. The burro may be a good 
pioneer, but he is not a success in handling a heavy traffic. 
Although trains of burros compete with the railroads in this 
country in carrying ore down and other freight back into the 
mountains, a distance of more than 100 miles and more than 
250 miles in Bolivia, across the sandy desert, where it is fifty 
or sixty miles between drinks, they will never build up an 
empire such as should exist on this coast. It takes three 
weeks, I am told, for burro trains to go from Cerro de Pasco 
to Callao laden with ore, yet they compete with the railroad 
which lacks sixty-three miles of completion. The ore is now 
carried over that interval on the backs of llamas. 

The rainless region, the desert strip, which lies between 
the Andes and the ocean along this coast, is cleft at intervals 
by narrow little valleys, down which the melting snows from 
the mountains find their way and bring fertility with them. 



204 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The valleys are separated from each other by ranges of foot- 
hills that support the main chain at right angles like a series 
of buttresses, and by trackless deserts which are shut in on all 
sides except where they run down to the sea. In several of 
these valleys are railroads running into the interior for a 
distance of from twenty to fifty miles. Most of them were 
built under the direction, or at least the inspiration, of Henry 
Meigs. He succeeded in stimulating the national pride and 
enterprise of the people, and in inducing the government to 
borrow $250,000,000 or more to build railroads. The con- 
struction bonds were sold at various rates, often at a discount 
of fifty per cent, and a good deal of the money was stolen. 
Most of the locomotives and rolling stock were bought in the 
United States, but have not been renewed for many years, 
and are, generally speaking, in a bad condition. The locomo- 
tive which hauled us up the Oroya railroad, for example, was 
built in Paterson, N. J., in 1875. 

The first of the little spurs of railroad which run into the 
interior from the sea connects Paita and Piura, in the northern 
part of the republic, through a very fertile valley, which is 
well watered and produces large crops. Engineers claim that 
this line would furnish the shortest route to the head of 
navigation, on the Amazon, and several surveys have been 
made. It is asserted that the American gunboat Wilmington, 
in its recent voyage up the affluents of the Amazon, reached 
a point in Peru, that is less than 200 miles from the Pacific 
ocean. The extension of the Paita & Piura railroad over the 
Cordilleras probably would be comparatively easy. 

It has already been demonstrated that a superior grade of 
coffee can be produced upon the Atlantic slopes of Peru, and 
within five days' ride on a mule from the terminus of the 
Oroya road is a colony of Europeans, mostly Germans and 
Englishmen, who have set out large plantations and are said 
to be doing well. They are remote from civilization and in 
the midst of a wilderness, but the climate is said to be good 
and the soil adapted to the production of coffee similar 
to that of the Yungas valley of Bolivia, which is claimed to 
be the best in the world. But that industry, like mining, will 



THE REMARKABLE RAILWAYS OF PERU 205 

never become important until transportation facilities are pro- 
vided. 

Railroad construction is, of course, very expensive. Labor 
is cheap, but scarce. They pay fifty or sixty cents a day in 
silver for construction hands, and very good ones, but on the 
desert coast grading is extremely difficult because of the 
shifting sands, and when the railway builders get into 
the mountains they have to cut their way through stone. 



XIV 
THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 

About twenty miles south of Lima, in the midst of the 
desert that lines the coast, are the ruins of the ancient temple 
to Pachacamac, the Christ of the Incas. According to their 
theology a supreme being called Con, without human form or 
material body, but an invisible, omniscient and omnipotent 
spirit, created the world, elevated the mountains, excavated 
the valleys and filled with water the rivers and the ocean. 
He gave life to mankind and provided human beings with all 
things necessary for their well being and happiness. Thus, 
blessed abundantly with the gifts of providence, the world 
remained happy for ages, until the human race became vicious 
and corrupt. Con, enraged because of this disrespect and 
ingratitude to himself, turned the fertile fields into sterile 
deserts and condemned his creatures to misery, until Pacha- 
camac, the son of Con, appeared upon earth, took charge of 
the government of the world, re-created and restored all that 
had been condemned by his father and was welcomed as a 
redeemer. New generations raised sumptuous temples in his 
honor upon the edge of the sea and there worshiped him with 
an idolatry that has seldom had a parallel in human history. 

The worshipers of Pachacamac never invoked his name 
without throwing themselves upon the ground, kissing the 
earth, and making manifestations of adoration and self-abase- 
ment. This temple of Pachacamac was the only one through- 
out the entire country dedicated to that supreme being, and 
pilgrims from all parts of the empire were constantly passing 
to and from that sacred place as the followers of Mahomet 
go to Mecca. Indeed, it was considered the duty of every 
inhabitant at least once in his lifetime to offer sacrifices and 
worship at Pachacamac, and to be buried in the neighborhood 

206 



ba 



ft 







THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 207 

of the temple was the supreme ambition of all believers. 
Around the temples and palaces of the Incas were enormous 
tambos, or hotels, for the entertainment of pilgrims, and on 
the roads leading from different parts of the empire similar 
accommodations were provided by the government. 

Immense buildings, now in ruins, were occupied by priests 
and women who dedicated their lives to the service of the god, 
and many nobles and princes erected stately structures in the 
neighborhood, which they and their friends could occupy at 
intervals when they came to offer their veneration to the 
omnipotent deity of their religion. Thus the city of Pacha- 
camac was not only the Mecca but the Rome of the Inca world, 
an assemblage of spacious edifices which were adorned with 
enormous wealth and offered an alluring temptation to the 
Spaniards, who learned of its magnificence shortly after their 
arrival in the country. 

Francisco Pizarro sent his brother Hernando down there 
from Cajamarca to make an investigation and seize whatever 
treasure he might find. Messengers were dispatched by the 
Indians in advance and the priests, being thus warned, were 
enabled to remove a considerable portion of their treasure, but 
sufficient remained to satisfy the avarice of the Spaniards for 
the time being, and extraordinary stories are told of the 
amount of silver and gold that was carried away by Hernando 
after he had destroyed the temples and the palaces. The 
chroniclers who accompanied the expedition declared that his 
booty was twenty-seven cargas of gold — a carga was sixty-two 
and one-half pounds — and 16,000 ounces of silver, all that 400 
men could carry in packs upon their backs. It is said also that 
the priests were able to conceal 400 cargas of gold and 82,000 
ounces of silver. Quintero, the pilot of the expedition, asked 
as his share of the booty the nails which were used to fasten 
the plates of gold to the walls of the temples and palaces, 
which were granted to him and amounted in value to 4,000 
marks. 

The ruins of Pachacamac remain very much as Hernando 
Pizarro left them after he despoiled the temples and palaces 
and robbed the inoffensive priests of their treasure, and they 



208 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

are the most accessible as well as one of the most interesting 
examples of Inca architecture. 

We took an early start. The bells were clanging for early- 
mass from the church towers in all directions as we left the 
hotel about 6 o'clock and hurried to the railroad station. They 
do not ring bells with ropes as we do in North America, but 
pound them with hammers and make such a racket that a 
stranger would suppose that all the world was on fire and that 
the bell-ringers were trying to alarm the people. The 
streets were full of laborers and servants hurrying to their 
work, but no carriages or street cars were out so early, and 
we had to walk to the station, where we met Mr. Dudley, the 
American minister; Mr. Niell, the secretary of legation, and 
Dr. Max Uhle, the famous German scientist, who has been 
engaged for years in the investigation of Inca archaeology and 
spent ten months at Pachacamac in 1897 in the interest of the 
University of Pennsylvania. He has recently returned to 
Peru as the agent of the American Exploration Society, and 
will make another collection of antiquities for the University 
of California. 

We took tickets to Chorillos, the Newport of Peru, and 
passed the little suburbs of Miraflores and Barranca, fashion- 
able summer resorts for the rich, and the country seats of the 
mighty. Barren and unlovely is the naked soil that lies 
between the railway and the ocean, and the mud walls that 
divide the fields add to the dismal picture. But wherever the 
soil has been moistened trees and shrubs and flowering 
plants, fruits, vegetables and eager vines spring up with 
tropical luxuriance. 

We passed the parks, the botanical gardens, the zoo, the 
rifle range and the polo grounds, whose walls are hung with 
flowers. We saw ruins of ancient structures with thick adobe 
walls, the same color as the earth, which Professor Uhle told 
us were the castles of the nobles who ruled these parts before 
the Spaniards came. We saw much evidence also of the war 
with Chile. Nineteen years have not erased the traces of that 
awful struggle. Roofless houses, rifle pits and fortifications 
still remain and a monument marks the place near Miraflores 



THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 209 

where the Peruvians made their last stand against the invaders 
from Chile ; where, after the army had been conquered and 
scattered at the battle of Chorillos, merchants and lawyers, 
clerks and mechanics, priests and monks — every one who 
could get a gun — came out from Lima and assisted in the 
defense of the city. Before reaching Chorillos we pass a 
handsome new building surrounded by high walls, with towers 
for sharpshooters, which is the national military school, in 
charge of Colonel Perreau and two other officers of the French 
army, who were detailed as instructors by the president of 
France at the request of the president of Peru. 

Chorillos is a pretty place as Spanish towns go, but there 
is no difference in the arrangement of the houses at a summer 
resort and those of a city. The streets are lined with dead 
walls and iron gates, through which you can get a glimpse of 
attractive interiors, but the beautiful part of a Peruvian home 
and the luxury enjoyed by wealthy people is hidden from 
strangers and revealed only to the knowledge of intimate 
friends. 

The causal observer is inclined to the opinion that people 
here and in other Spanish countries do not know what comfort 
is, but the old residenters rebuke such presumption and explain 
that centuries of experience have demonstrated that the style 
of architecture you find there is much better adapted to the 
climate than such villas as we admire at the summer resorts in 
the United States. Man has adapted himself to nature, and 
what will answer for one section of this great universe will 
never do in another. 

Saddle horses were to have met us at the railway station 
at Chorillos on the arrival of our train, so that we could get 
an early start across the desert, but we were doomed to the 
exasperating experience so common to those who deal with 
Latin - Americans. We had to wait two hours before the 
animals were ready, and there is no telling how much longer 
our departure would have been delayed had it not been for 
the energetic efforts of Colonel Perreau in our behalf. 

Some people told us it was twelve miles from Chorillos to 
Pachacamac, others said it was fifteen and others twenty. 



2I0 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Spanish miles are of irregular length, but always very long, 
and their measurement depends upon the politeness of your 
informant. It is one of the amiable customs of the country to 
give pleasant information regardless of its truth, and when a 
caballero tells you it is only six miles to the next hacienda, 
when it is really ten, he excuses the falsehood on the ground 
of your tired appearance and your anxiety to reach your 
destination as soon as possble. But, whatever the distance of 
Pachacamac may be, it is a hard journey, varied by natural 
phenomena which divert the attention of the traveler. 

We followed a dusty highway along the base of the naked 
hills which surround Chorillos, with the dust four or five 
inches deep, until we reached the sugar plantation called La 
Villa, an extensive affair with several thousand acres in cane, 
a fine plant of machinery from Philadelphia, a narrow-guage 
railroad to carry the sugar to Chorillos and a massive aqueduct 
of stone to bring water from the hills near by to make the 
wheels go round. A most gracious haciendado opened the 
gates to let us through, and after crossing a slimy savanna 
covered with white alkali, where a few cattle grazed, we 
reached a broad beach, upon which the surf rolled with 
greater majesty and might than I have ever seen before. The 
spray leaped high into the air when each receding wave met a 
new arrival, and great billows of foam followed each other in 
quick intervals with a roar that made conversation difficult. 
Here the Pacific ocean is widest and an unbroken area of 
water stretches for nearly 8,000 miles, a long journey for 
waves to travel, and they therefore had a right to announce 
their arrival with more than ordinary sound and ceremony. 
It is no wonder, too, that the innocent aborigines were so 
impressed with the grandeur and the magnitude of the ocean 
that they worshiped it as a god. 

We disturbed a mass convention of pelicans that had gath- 
ered on the beach — wise-looking old chaps with long bills that 
reminded us of South American hotel-keepers, and an air of 
solemnity and deliberation that cannot be approached by any 
other bird except a goose. There were thousands and thou- 
sands of them, and they darkened the air as they stretched 



THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 211 

their wings and went clanging out to sea ; but they wouldn't 
move till we were close upon them, and regarded us with 
evil eyes. Beautiful gulls with black wings and soft white 
breasts mingled with the pelicans, and myriads of ducks, 
which formed triangles when they flew away and retained that 
marching order until they were out of sight. 

At least ten miles of beach was traversed. An ocean of 
blue water on one side, and an ocean of drifting sand upon 
the other, which lay in windrows as the wind had left it, and 
for a background there was a long repulsive mountain, which 
looked as if it were made out of dust, with here and there 
rocks protruding from the sand like the elbows of a pauper 
through a worn-out coat. Then we came upon a little oasis — 
a clump of bamboo and date palms surrounded by grassy 
slopes, cane and fields of sugar cane and corn, which were 
watered by a little stream that was able to reach the sea. 
Beyond it rose a group of three hills, covered with rambling 
ruins, the highest, 458 feet above the level of the sea, being 
surmounted by the ancient temple of the sun. Nearer, on an 
intervening eminence, were the remains of a temple to Pacha- 
camac, which Dr. Uhle told us was erected centuries before 
the Incas overcame and subdued the ancient race that inhab- 
ited this coast before them. We can learn very little about 
that people or the period in which they lived, but we know 
that with cunning diplomacy the Incas exercised their intellec- 
tual superiority and grafted their own religion upon that of 
the nation which they absorbed into their body politic. The 
Spaniards say that the priests of the primitive faith were 
corrupted by the Peruvian monarchs, who caused to be con- 
structed this temple, dedicated to the sun, which was adorned 
in the most sumptuous and ostentatious manner and decorated 
with treasures whose description makes us wonder how such 
a simple people could have amassed such wealth in this 
inhospitable desert. 

There is a striking parallel between the powers and the 
attributes of the emperor of China and those of the ruler of 
the Incas, as their traditions bear a distinct analogy to the 
Mosaic account of the origin and early history of the human race. 



212 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

At the foot of the hills we saw, half concealed by sand, the 
crumbling walls of edifices which were erected a thousand 
years ago for the shelter of pilgrims who came from the dis- 
tant provinces to present their offerings to Pachacamac. Near- 
est the sea was a convent of the virgins of the sun, which, 
according to the accounts of the Spanish invaders, was richly- 
furnished and adorned with great taste. The women who 
lived there were dedicated to the sun*, they were the wives of 
the god and preserved the greatest seclusion in their cloisters, 
so that not even the king himself could enter the precinct of 
their monastery — a privilege that was only enjoyed by the 
queen and her daughters. Under the direction of competent 
mistresses these wives of the sun were taught the duties of 
their sacred office. Their occupations were spinning and 
weaving robes for the royal family and vestments for the 
priests of the finest vicuna wool, in the most brilliant colors, 
and embroidered with gold and precious stones. They also 
brewed the chicha, a beverage which was extensively used in 
the ceremonies of the temple, as well as in the festivals 

The great palace of the Inca, upon the crest of a hill, is 
roofless, but its walls, which are eight or nine feet thick, have 
made a heroic resistance against time and decay for four cen- 
turies since the Spaniards stripped them of their splendors. 
The streets that led to it can be easily traced and the watch 
towers which guarded the zigzag entrances are almost per- 
fectly preserved. In the center of the palace is a great hall, 
perhaps a hundred feet long by fifty in width, where the 
ceremonials and the banquets of the court are supposed to 
have taken place. From descriptions given of this apartment 
by the chroniclers of early times, it must have been magnifi- 
cent. The door was of gold, Dr. Tschudi saj^s, richly inlaid 
with precious stones and coral, and at the western end, toward 
the sea and facing the rising sun, are three platforms or 
terraces upon which the emperor, the high priests and other 
dignitaries used to preside over the festivities. 

Behind this great room are the quarters in which it is 
believed that Hernando Pizarro was entertained before he 
disclosed his cruel purpose. Surrounding the palace are many 



THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 213 

buildings of more or less magnitude, and there are a series of 
half-ruined walls showing that Pachacamac was laid out in a 
manner similar to Pekin, one city within another. 

The area unoccupied by buildings was used for burial pur- 
poses, and a vast cemetery extends indefinitely in all direc- 
tions. Faith in the immortality of the soul was one of the 
fundamental principles of the Peruvian religion. The 
aborigines believed that after death the just went to a beauti- 
ful and pleasant place, like the heaven of the Christians and 
the nirvana of the Hindoos, while the souls of the sinful were 
tormented in another place, but both pursued the same occu- 
pations after death that they followed while living. The 
theory of a resurrection of the body induced them to preserve 
the dead with great care and to bury with them the utensils 
and ornaments which they used in life. Taking advantage 
of this custom, archaeologists and treasure-seekers have exca- 
vated a large area in search of gold and silver ornaments, 
vessels of pottery and other interesting objects which the 
graves contain. The place is a drear and repulsive Golgotha, 
covered with skulls and bleached bones, broken pottery and 
cerements which have been stripped from the mummies. 
There is no telling how many millions were buried here, but 
the bodies lie in layers and very close to each other, for it was 
the ambition of every individual in the great Inca empire to 
have his bones lie in this consecrated ground. 

The mummies are buried in a sitting posture, with the 
knees under the chin, and are wrapped in bundles with a net- 
work of rope around them very skillfully done. Some of the 
wrappings are fine fabrics of cotton, which have not lost their 
luster during the centuries they have lain in the soil. Ear- 
rings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces and other ornaments of 
silver and gold are frequently found, so frequently as to induce 
many persons to make a business of digging up the cemeter- 
ies and robbing the dead. They located the place where the 
rich were laid, and that portion of the cemetery has been 
thoroughly explored. 

Both the sea and the desert have encroached upon the 
ancient city. A considerable portion of it has been buried 



2i 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

under the drifting sand, and in 1586 an earthquake separated 
from the mainland a noble promontory, which now, gray with 
guano that cannot be reached because of the surf, stands as a 
silent sentinel guarding the remnant of an extinct civilization. 
The vast plain, covered with roofless ruins, bears mute but 
impressive testimony to the thorough manner in which the 
Spaniards subdued the country. We ate our luncheon under 
the shade of the walls of the Temple of the Virgins, and a 
daughter of the Incas brought on her broad back a bundle of 
juicy cane, bound with a rope, to feed our horses. 

The coast of South America has been called a panorama of 
desolation, being a constant succession of bleak and barren 
cliffs, with scarcely a lovely thing for 1,500 miles. Occasion- 
ally a stream makes its way from the mountains to the ocean, 
and leaves a line of green that is perpetual and a fertility that 
is unsurpassed. Such a place is Pisco, the first stopping place 
of the steamer south of Callao, where a little river irrigates a 
broad valley that produces some of the finest grapes in the 
world. From Pisco come the wine and brandy that bears that 
name and the famous cordial called "Italia," which is unsur- 
passed as a stimulant ; but the quantity produced is so small 
that it is scarcely sufficient for local consumption and does not 
find its way into the world's markets. 

Near Pisco an Italian colony has recently been established, 
which will extend the cultivated area a considerable degree, 
and there is no limit to its productiveness wherever water can 
be brought to the soil. 

There is no harbor along the coast until you reach 
Coquimbo, the first port north of Valparaiso. At all the 
other places the steamers are compelled to anchor in an open 
roadstead out beyond the surf and passengers and freight are 
transferred by means of lighters through the breakers in a 
manner that looks desperate and dangerous, but is seldom 
attended with accidents. Human beings and packages of 
merchandise are hoisted from the lighters to the decks with 
cranes and tackle, and the experience of landing is not such as 
to encourage nervous and timid people to cruise up and down 
this coast. The seasickness in the lighters is also much 



THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 215 

greater than upon the steamers, and passengers who are lucky 
enough to be able to remain on board are furnished with excit- 
ing and sometimes distressing spectacles at every port. 

At some ports iron moles or piers have been extended into 
the water beyond the breakers, which make embarkation more 
comfortable and less dangerous, but at almost every place you 
wonder what possessed people to start a town at such an 
inconvenient and uninviting location. This problem is solved 
by a short journey into the interior, for, hidden by the foot- 
hills back of each of these little ports, is a fertile and produc- 
tive valley from which sugar, rice and other agricultural 
staples are shipped in large quantities, and often trails lead 
out to mines of copper, silver and antimony in the neighbor- 
hood, which yield ore so rich that it is sent to London in bags 
like coffee or corn. 

On the face of a great rock which rises from the ocean 
south of Pisco and shows a smooth and unbroken surface to 
the western sun is carved a representation of an eight-armed 
candlestick, about 100 feet high and fifty feet across from end 
to end of its longest branches. It is perfect in symmetry, and 
is said to be carved in lines about a foot deep and a yard wide. 
When and how this phenomenon occurred no one can tell. It 
has been there since the Spaniards came to this country, and 
of course superstitious people attribute its origin to a miracle. 
One of the stories is that St. James dropped it when he came 
to Peru to assist Pizarro and the conquistadores in driving the 
Incas out of their ancient homes. 

Sometimes, when there has been a strong wind over the 
desert, the candlestick is covered with the drifting sand, and 
the padre in the nearest village goes down with a lot of 
Indians .to dig it out. 

According to official statistics in the archives of the old 
palace in Lima, the value of the silver produced in Peru 
between 1630 and 1803 was $1,232,000,000. The mines of 
Hualgayoc, Huantajaya and Cerro del Pasco alone yielded 
$849,445,500 during that period. 

The deposits of guano found along the coast are almost as 
valuable, and the shipments from the Chincha islands during 



216 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the nine years between 185 1 and i860 were 2,860,000 tons. In 
1875 the guano exports amounted to 378,683 tons and were 
valued at $20,000,000, and the nitrate beds, which have been 
worked in the province of Tarapaca since 1830, have yielded 
equal wealth. In 1875 the exports were 326,869 tons, in 1878, 
269,327 tons. In 1880 the exports were 240,600 tons, in 1881, 
385,984 tons, and in 1882 they reached the enormous total of 
535,151 tons. 

The average annual shipments were valued between 
$25,000,000 and $30,000,000, and this was a clear profit to a 
population that never reached 2,000,000, and three-fourths of 
whom were Indians, who had no share in its benefit. It was 
an epidemic of riches, and instead of wisely hoarding her 
sources of wealth and protecting them, the government of 
Peru, like the people, plunged into a career of reckless extrav- 
agance that has no parallel in national history. The exhausted 
lands of the old world required fertilizers to revive them, and 
their owners paid high prices for what cost Peru nothing. 

Guano is found only in rainless regions. There are said to 
be some deposits on the coast of Mexico and among the 
islands of the Gulf of California, but they have never been 
worked with much profit, and it is along the arid deserts west 
of the Andes where the rain never falls, that the greatest 
wealth has been derived from this peculiar source. 

Guano is a mixture of the excrement of birds and seals, 
the decomposed bodies of both and the bones of the fishes 
which they have taken upon the land for food. Along the 
coast of Peru to-day are millions of sea birds whose progen- 
itors have been there for centuries. The sky is often dark- 
ened with them, and they cast a shadow upon the ocean's 
surface as they fly between the islands upon which they 
roost and feed. These islands are swarming with seals also ; 
the rocky shores are fringed with multitudes of them beyond 
the power of man to number. Their fur is of no value because 
of the warm climate of this latitude. They live on the 
islands with the birds. Here they both feed and die and 
decay with other animal life which they bring from the ocean. 
There have been no rains to wash it away, and the wind 



THE MECCA OF A PREHISTORIC RACE 2I7 

scarcely ever rises above a gentle breeze, so that it was allowed 
to accumulate for ages, until in some places the deposits were 
hundreds of feet deep, dried and baked by the tropical sun. 

The amount of money Peru gained from her guano deposits 
cannot be estimated more accurately than the value of the 
plunder which the Spaniards obtained in the Inca palaces and 
temples, and had it been carefully husbanded it might have 
been a perpetual source of wealth, making taxation unneces- 
sary, providing means for the development of other material 
resources and paying the cost of internal improvements and 
for the education of the people, which is necessary for the 
healthful life of any nation. There never was a country more 
bountifully blessed by nature with an easy road to riches, but 
the greater part has been squandered, and comparatively little 
remains, which is now being shipped to Europe at the rate of 
30,000 or 40,000 tons a year. 



XV 
OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS TO BOLIVIA 

There are two ways to reach Bolivia. A narrow-guage 
railway runs from the port of Antofogasta across the desert 
and over the mountains to the mining district, of which Oruro 
is the capital, and there is a standard-gauge road from the 
port of Mollendo, called the Southern Railway of Peru, via 
Arequipa, to Puno, on Lake Titicaca. There you take a 
steamer for the little town of Chillilaya, on the southern 
shore of that remarkable body of water. There a stagecoach 
of a primitive character carries passengers to the city of La 
Paz, the most progressive town and the present capital of 
Bolivia. The stage ride is forty-five miles over a road that is 
fairly good, and it is made with comparative comfort, teams of 
six and eight mules galloping the entire distance at the top of 
their speed. 

It took a great deal of nerve to build the road to Puno, but 
it was American nerve and American genius that overcame 
the Cordilleras and the deserts and found a path through the 
gorges and along the mountain sides in a manner that will 
always excite amazement among ordinary people and admi- 
ration among engineers. It is often said that money and 
science can accomplish everything. Even Archimedes offered 
to raise the world if some one would give him another planet 
to stand on, and that principle is illustrated by the Puno rail- 
road. It was a triumph of energetic and brainy men, who, 
however, did not have to count the cost. The government 
of Peru paid the bills at a time when the republic was rolling 
in riches, when the mines of the Andes were pouring out a 
silver stream and the islands of the sea were furnishing an 
even more valuable contribution to the public treasury in the 
form of guano. 

218 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 219 

It was the first great mountain road to be built. It was 
the pioneer in that line of engineering which carves a right of 
way on the breast of a precipice and adopts the longest possi- 
ble distance between two points to make the grade. There 
may be more remarkable pieces of railway construction in 
Colorado nowadays, but there was nothing to compare with the 
Puno road when it was built from the ocean over the backbone 
of the continent and climbed 14,666 feet across a desert, in 
a distance of 223 miles. 

John L. Thorndike of Boston was the engineer. He still 
lives in Lima. It is said that when a party of his assistants 
had gone up and down the different gorges and over all the 
mountain trails, and after months of consultation and com- 
parison of notes had laid out the profile of the road, Thorn- 
dike, their chief, put a blue print in his pocket, got aboard a 
mule and started up the line proposed. He rode for two days 
without looking at the blue print, but made a careful exam- 
ination of the paths that the goats had surveyed in their 
search for the bunch grass that grows in the sand. Then he 
returned to the office at Islay, and with his pencil laid out the 
line. 

The town of Mollendo, the ocean terminus of the railway, 
is built upon a rock and extends into the ocean and rises to 
the height of about 100 feet. The face is irregular and ugly- 
looking crags project in all directions and make the landing 
look very dangerous, although in reality they are a protection 
by breaking the force of the surf that rolls in from the Pacific. 
Behind a cluster of these rocks is a little pier, where the 
lighters discharge their passengers and freight whenever the 
weather will allow such work to be done. It isn't every day 
that people can land at Mollendo. Sometimes passengers on 
the steamers have to continue to the next port and remain 
their until the surf subsides, but we happened to have a com- 
fortable landing and were cordially welcomed by Mr. Turner, 
the local manager of the railway, and Don Enrique Meiers, 
United States consul, who is the most influential and prosper- 
ous man in the place. 

All the water used by the people of Mollendo is brought in 



220 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

an eight-inch iron pipe a distance of eighty-five miles from the 
Chile River, which is tapped in the mountains at a height of 
7,275 feet above the sea level. The pipe lies partly under- 
ground and partly on the surface along the line of the railway, 
and was laid about thirty years ago for the railway company 
as a matter of necessity to supply water to its shops at Mol- 
lendo and its tanks and stations along the way. Until that 
time the people of Mollendo were dependent upon water 
brought in tank steamers from more favored places up the 
coast, but now the railway company supplies the public at an 
average rate of $24 a year per family. This water pipe is one 
of the great achievements of modern enterprise in South 
America, for without it the railway could not exist, and the 
water it brings is the source of life and productiveness to 
many important plantations. There is a powerful flow, and, 
coming from the height it does, a strong pressure, although 
it is claimed that at several places the pipe is nearly clogged 
with sand. 

The Arequipa & Puno railroad is famous because it ran 
nearer the stars than any other in the world until the Oroya 
road was recently completed. The latter crosses the Andes 
through the Gallera tunnel at a height of 15,655 feet. The 
Arequipa road crosses atCrucero Alto, "the High Cross," at a 
height of 14,666 feet. 

For the first ten miles out of Mollendo the track runs along 
the sea beach and then enters a quedebra or ravine in the 
mountains and begins its weary climb up the mountain side. 
It does not pass through a narrow gorge and between frown- 
ing precipices like the Oroya road, but the track lies upon a 
shelf that has been carved out of the rocks at a regular grade 
averaging 100 feet to the mile. It passes first through a 
region of rocks and sand, upheaved by some great cataclysm 
in ages past, where the surface is covered with a fine white 
sand called kaolin, which is shipped in large quantities to 
Europe for the manufacture of fine china. There is a good 
deal of borax in sight also, and in one of the side valleys, 
about fifteen miles from the track, is said to be the most 
valuable deposit in all the world, which belongs to a Califor- 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 221 

nia syndicate. Between the mountains are beautiful valleys 
in which water has been spread over the soil and brings 
abundant harvests of cotton and cane. The cotton plant has 
a dark tint, the cane is a vivid green. The cotton plant of 
Peru is permanent and grows as high as a cherry tree, blos- 
soming perennially and ripening about three months after the 
buds, so that picking is going on the year around, and a 
hacienda does not have to be replanted more than once in a 
generation. 

As the track rises gravel and lava cover the surface and 
tufts of buffalo grass appear, which make the topography 
resemble the plateaus of Arizona and New Mexico. Cattle, 
burros and goats are seen on every side picking up a precari- 
ous living, and here and there is a prospect hole where miners 
have been looking for copper and silver without much encour- 
agement. It is a curious fact that in all the excavation and 
blasting that was done in the construction of this road not a 
trace of mineral was disclosed. But, as I have said, there are 
several productive mines in the mountains within easy dis- 
tance, from which ore is brought out in bags on the backs of 
burros. Then, as you go higher, chaparral and cactus appear, 
of the Spanish bayonet and the candelbra variety, which has 
arms like a candlestick. 

The little stations are well built, with adobe walls and roofs 
of corrugated iron, and are surrounded by neat-looking dwell- 
ings of the same material in which the employes of the com- 
pany are housed, and mud huts from which issue groups of 
half -naked children, who are innocent of shame and the sense 
of propriety. Women come to the cars selling fruits, chica 
and bunches of sugar cane, which are eagerly bought by the 
native passengers in the second-class cars, and even that class 
which my friend De Leon, the United States consul-general at 
Guayaquil, insists upon calling <f the proud patricians of Peru" 
do not hesitate to patronize them on the sly. 

At some of the stations piles of freight are awaiting ship- 
ment, and droves of burros, patient, melancholy-looking little 
fellows, with monstrous heads and slender legs, gaze indiffer- 
ently at the railway train, as if unconscious of its competition. 



222 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The track continues to wind like a snake in and out of the 
irregularities of the mountain side, and cuts all sorts of geo- 
metrical capers, like a Canadian skater. There are double 
curves and serpentines and horseshoes, and at places you can 
see three or four levels, one above the other, on the same 
mountain. The first station after leaving the seashore lies at 
an elevation of 1,000 feet, the second at 1,830 feet, the third at 
2,493 feet, and Cachendo, the lunch station, is 3,250 feet above 
the sea. There is an average rise of 800 feet between stations 
until we reach Arequipa, which is 7,550 feet above tidewater. 
There is no difficulty engineering along the lower end of the 
line. There are no tunnels and only one bridge the entire 
distance, but the heavy construction is continuous, the road- 
way being carved out of the rocks with shovels, picks and 
dynamite. 

The train creeps along very slowly at the rate of about ten 
miles an hour, an engine and two cars, the first a combination 
of baggage, and second-class, the other a well-upholstered and 
neatly-kept coach, built on the American plan at the shops at 
Arequipa. The passenger traffic is limited. The first-class 
passengers go through to Arequipa, the local patrons are 
mostly second-class. It requires seven hours to make the 
ninety-two miles. 

At an altitude of about 3,000 feet the soil improves, and 
you can see shrubbery from the car windows and a few modest 
but aspiring flowers. At Cachendo, the lunch station, the 
snow-clad mountains of the great Cordillera first come in view. 
El Misti is an active volcano, 19,200 feet high, with a hood of 
snow upon its crest, and its almost perfectly proportioned sides 
are seamed like a mold of blanc mange. On the right of El 
Misti is Pichu-Pichu, which rises 18,000 feet. On the left is 
Carachani, 20,000 feet high, and way beyond is Coropuno, one 
of the highest peaks in South America, which measures 22,000 
feet. 

The train here enters a desolate region called the pampas — 
a plateau between two ranges of the Andes, about forty miles 
across, at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, covered with vol- 
canic sand and ashes, and absolutely lifeless, with not a living 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 223 

thing in sight ; not even a cactus or a sage brush has the cour- 
age to grow there. Many bowlders and much lava, scoria and 
baked clay have been scattered over the surface by volcanoes, 
and you are reminded of the Yuma desert on the Southern 
Pacific railroad. The temperature becomes very warm, the 
air is dry and hot, and the reflection of the sun upon the sand 
is trying to the eyes. 

At frequent intervals along the journey you see crosses 
that have been erected where men have died, and there is a 
ghastly shrine, hung with ribs, thigh bones, skulls and other 
melancholy reminders of the uncertainty of human life upon 
this awful desert. Some of the victims died of disease during 
the construction of the railway, others perished of thirst or 
exhaustion while crossing the pampas. All of them were once 
buried in the sand, but the wind uncovered their bones, which 
kindly hands have collected and hung about the emblem of the 
crucifixion. 

Upon the desolate pampas of Peru is found extraordinary 
phenomena known as medanos — crescent-shaped piles of 
white crystals, called silica, rising to a height of sometimes 
twelve and sometimes twenty feet at the center of the arc, 
and molded with perfect symmetry. The points of the cres- 
cent are always of equal length, and always point to the north. 
The medanos move continually, making an average distance 
of about ten feet a year, but each pile keeps its own sand, and 
in a mysterious manner they never mix, nor do they increase 
in numbers. Veterans who have lived here all their lives and 
have been passing over the desert for half a century claim that 
the number of medanos is no greater than twenty-five or thirty 
years ago. 

At Vitor, thirty-six miles from Arequipa, the track enters 
the mountains again, and the traveler has an opportunity of 
seeing evidences of nature in her most terrible mood. The 
mountains are covered with monstrous masses of broken stone, 
and are rent asunder with great chasms, which show what 
earthquakes and volcanoes can do when they give their mind 
to it. Here are deposited the upheavals of unnumbered cen- 
turies, and the depth of the deposits of broken stone, ashes and 



224 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

lava are unmeasured. Near the base of the mountain, 100 
feet above the bed of the river Chile, you see outcroppings of a 
black rock, an even strip, which shows where the bottom is. 

The valley broadens as you approach Arequipa, and its 
fertility [is shown by an emerald ribbon that illuminates the 
gloomy grandeur of the scenery. Irrigating ditches creep 
around the mountain sides and empty their contents over the 
slope; farmhouses are built of loose bowlders and without 
mortar, and are thatched with roofs of straw in the shape of 
pyramids, over which a coating of clay has been placed to pro- 
tect it from the rain and wind. On almost every farm is a cir- 
cular corral, built of bowlders, with a stone floor, in which the 
wheat is trampled out of the straw by the hoofs of animals, 
and many other curious and interesting objects are seen on 
every hand. 

The snow-clad peaks are bathed in pink as the sun droops 
behind the surrounding mountains, and it changes to purple 
haze as the twilight fades. 

Passenger trains leave Arequipa for Puno on Thursdays 
and Sundays at 7 o'clock in the morning, consisting of an 
engine, one first-class and one second-class passenger car and 
a box car for mails, baggage and express matter. Freight 
trains run every day. The locomotives and the first-class cars 
are on the American plan. The second-class cars are similar 
to those seen in Austria and Italy, with four long benches run- 
ning lengthwise opposite each other, and ventilated by lattice 
work like a stock car. It is said that they were constructed in 
this way to allow the passengers to gossip with their friends 
outside, because it was found difficult to get them back in 
again if they were once allowed to alight at the stations. 

The track climbs around the base of the volcano El Misti, 
rising nearly 500 feet during the first forty-four miles. The 
mountains are bare, and seem to be composed of alternate 
layers of rocks and baked clay. The latter looks like chalk, 
and cuts like cheese. It was very convenient and useful for 
grading purposes, and on the mountain sides are great cavities, 
which were shoveled out for this purpose, whose walls are as 
regular and as smooth as if they had been done with a carving 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 225 

knife. At intervals of a few miles are lovely valleys, showing 
where the water has been gathered and utilized for irrigation, 
for the soil is rich and produces anything that man may plant 
in a most prolific manner. Sugar cane and wheat grow side 
by side, cotton and corn intermingle their foliage and potatoes 
and melons and ordinary vegetables and fruits grow as they do 
in California. 

Wheat is one of the chief crops, although the supply has 
never yet been sufficient for home consumption, and much 
flour is still brought in from Chile. The grain is cultivated in 
the most primitive manner, as it is in Japan, where people 
have no idea of the value of time. The ground is plowed with 
a crooked stick, hauled by a team of oxen or mules. One man 
keeps the stick in the ground — usually the trunk of a tree 
whittled off to a point — while the other howls at the animals. 
The seed is sown by hand, and then the soil is raked over with 
a sort of harrow, home-made and of curious pattern. When 
the crop is ripe the women go into the field with long, straight 
knives, like the machetes used in Cuba, cut the stalks by the 
handfuls, lay them carefully in piles, tie them with strings and 
carry them on their backs to the headquarters of the hacienda, 
where, after the harvest is done, they separate the finest wheat 
from the stalks kernel by kernel with the fingers, while sitting 
on the pavement of a patio. The best of the straw is then 
separated from the remainder for manufacturing purposes and 
carefully tied up into bundles as big as one's arm. The 
remaining straw is spread on the floor of a circular corral 
called a cancha, which has a sort of windlass in the center, 
with a long pole in the hub. Animals of all kinds are hitched 
to this arrangement — oxen, mules, horses or burros, anything 
with hoofs — and they are driven round and round upon the 
straw until the grain is thoroughly trampled out of it. Then 
the straw is poked up into piles by men with forked sticks and 
stacked for fodder, for thatching houses and for other purposes. 

Barley, which is another of the staples of the country, is 
treated in the same way. 

According to tradition, wheat was introduced in Peru by 
a curious accident. Inez Munoz, the wife of Alcantara, a half- 



aa6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

brother of Pizarro, and the first European woman who landed 
in this country, brought with her a bag of rice. One day 
shortly after her arrival, while cleaning some of the rice to 
make a pudding for her brother-in-law, the marquis, she came 
across a few grains of wheat, which she carefully laid aside, 
and afterward planted in the northwest corner of the main 
plaza of Lima, just in front of where the city hall now stands. 
They yielded abundantly, and the next year the little crop was 
distributed among the settlers for seed. This was in 1535, and 
in 1539 the production was so extensive that the first flour mill 
was erected. 

In 1560 the same lady, having meantime become a widow, 
introduced the first olive trees into Peru, which were also 
planted in the plaza of Lima. All of them died except two, 
one of which was stolen by a Chileano and became the parent 
of all the olive trees in Chile, while from the other sprung all 
the groves in Peru. 

The soil improves with the elevation because it is moistened 
almost daily by the clouds that enwrap the mountains, and as 
we reach Canaguas, which is 13,380 feet above the sea, the 
mountain sides are covered with gray bunch grass, which 
makes excellent grazing. A few wild flowers are seen along 
the sides of the track, and little streams come rippling down 
from the melting snows in a most cheerful and audacious man- 
ner, but are soon swallowed up in the thirsty sands. These 
streams contain a delicious fish that looks like a smelt and is 
called a pejerray. Herds of fine cattle, large-boned animals 
with spreading horns, are seen in every direction, and vast 
droves of sheep, including many alpaca and vicuna, both being 
limited in their habitat to Bolivia, southern Peru and some 
parts of Chile. The alpacas look like dwarfed llamas, the 
vicunas resemble our deer. The sheep and cattle are herded 
by women, who carry their knitting and spinning spindles with 
them and sit down among the rocks as contentedly as if it were 
a most comfortable fireside. At occasional intervals a rough 
shelter is built, in which they can seek protection in case it 
storms. It is usually a roofless well of stones six or eight feet 
in diameter and five or six feet high. The wind often blows 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 227 

with great violence through the mountain gorges and across 
the plateaus, and it was only the other day that a cyclone tore 
down a substantial brick building that was used as a station 
house by the railway company. Large corrals are provided 
for herding the sheep and vicuna, but the cattle are allowed to 
take care of themselves under all circumstances. 

In the high plateaus are plenty of springs, and water can 
be obtained at an elevation of 14,000 and even 15,000 feet by 
driving wells into the sand. There is supposed to be an 
artesian basin fed from Lake Titicaca and its twin, Popo, which 
has no outlet except underground, and it is a mystery where 
all the water goes to. There are many small lakes in the hol- 
lows at an elevation similar to that of Titicaca which have 
neither "inlet nor outlet, but catch the surface drainage when 
the rain or snow falls. The snow line is about 16,000 feet. 
The ice line begins at Canaguas, 13,380 feet, and a film forms 
over standing water every night. There is no timber on any 
of these mountains, and the only fuel is llama dung and the 
yareta, a sort of peat which looks like cauliflower or pumice 
stone, and grows in the swampy highlands, where it is cut out 
of the soil about a foot thick. This remarkable plant seems to 
grow downward, for the top is always almost even with the 
surface of the soil, and looks like green mold. The peons cut 
it out, spread it on the ground to dry in the sun and wind, and 
then bring it into the settlements for fuel. It burns like peat. 

At an elevation of 13,413 feet the railway passes through 
immense deposits of chalk, with occasional outcroppings of 
lava. This is followed by a number of mountains that seemed 
to be composed entirely of baked clay, showing evidences of 
intense internal heat and tremendous upheavals from the 
neighboring volcanoes. There is another curious phenomenon 
which nobody seems to be able to explain. One hill will be 
composed of chalk or baked clay, without the sign of a stone, 
while the next hill will be composed of stones entirely, piled 
up in enormous masses with such confusion as to suggest that 
some Titan had lifted a mountain and put it back upside down. 
It is a field of marvels for the geologist. At one place the 
track encircles an ancient crater about twelve miles wide which 



228 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

is filled with ashes and lava to an unknown depth. While 
Misti is semi-active and vapor continually escapes from its 
crater, the volcano of Ubinus, which is over 16,000 feet in 
height, is continually active, although its eruptions are not 
severe and no damage has ever come from them. 

Within sight of the car windows, besides these two mon- 
sters, we have frequent views of Coropuna, one of the highest 
peaks in America, which measures 22,800 feet, Charchani, 
19,400 feet, and Pichu, which is 17,800 feet. 

Sumbay is the station for the famous Cailoma silver mines, 
owned and operated by an English company, which sends out 
large quantities of high-grade ore in bags on the backs of 
llamas. It pays an average of $800 to the ton, and is shipped 
by sea to Liverpool at a cost of 5 5 shillings a ton to the miners. 
The railway company regulates its rates of transportation 
according to the value of the ore. It carries copper cheaper 
than silver, and the rate on bullion is a percentage of its value. 
Nearly all the gold goes to Lima to be coined in the mints. 

We cross the grand divide at Alto Crucero (the High Cross), 
a collection of adobe huts and a well-built station, upon the 
front of which is an inscription to inform the traveler that it is 
the highest point upon the railway, and 14,666 feet above the 
sea. There are mining settlements in Peru at a greater eleva- 
tion, but for many years this was the highest point in the world 
at which steam was used for motive power. The inhabitants 
are mostly railway men, it being the end of the division, and 
the families of the shepherds, who watch their flocks upon the 
pampas that surround it. It is not so bleak and dreary as 
the deserts 3,000 or 4,000 feet below; the surface of the soil 
has a cheerful appearance that comes from the clumps of grass 
that are a good way apart when you inspect them individually, 
but collectively make quite an attractive coverlet for the earth 
of a grayish green. 

We felt no sirroche, the disease which usually attacks peo- 
ple who rise rapidly from a lower to a higher altitude, because 
we had been forewarned and kept as quiet as possible in the 
car which Mr. McCord, the manager of the railway, had pro- 
vided for our accommodation. Sirroche is no more dangerous 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 229 

than seasickness, but quite as uncomfortable. Its symptoms 
are nausea, severe pains in the head and bleeding at the nose 
and ears. We could perceive the pressure of the blood in the 
head, because of the rare atmosphere, but felt no other evil 
effects. 

At Alto Crucero water freezes every night of the year, and 
the thermometer frequently falls to 6, 8 and 10 degrees below 
zero. There are no facilities for artificial heat — not even a 
fireplace — and people keep themselves warm by putting on 
ponchos and other extra wraps. Mr. Grundy, who has charge 
of the smelter at Maravillas, says that this winter the thermom- 
eter has frequently fallen to 8 degrees below zero in the sit- 
ting-room of his residence, but the family have felt no 
discomfort from the lack of stoves and furnaces, and have sat 
around the evening lamp reading and chatting just as they are 
accustomed to do at an ordinary temperature. 

At noonday the sun is intensely hot, because of the eleva- 
tion and the rarity of the atmosphere, and blisters the flesh of 
those who are not accustomed to it. There is a difference of 
20 and sometimes 30 degrees in the temperature of the shade 
and the sunshine. Water will freeze in the shade while 
twenty feet away men may be working in their shirt 
sleeves. 

The natives seem to be entirely inured to cold, and go 
about barefooted and barelegged over the ice and the stones 
indifferently, without regard to the temperature; but they 
have a way of heaping the blankets on their heads and wrap- 
ping up their faces to keep the pure air out of their throats and 
nostrils. The women who herd the flocks are often out on the 
mountains for weeks at a time without shelter or anything to 
eat except parched corn, strips of dried meat and coca leaves, 
which are the most powerful of nerve stimulants. 

From Crucero Alto, the highest railway town in the world, 
the track drops into the Lagunillas, or lake region of the Cor- 
dilleras, where, 14,250 feet above the sea, is a group of large 
lakes of very cold, pure water without inlet or outlet. They 
receive the drainage of the surrounding hills and conceal it 
somewhere, but there is no visible means of its escape. A 



3 3 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

fringe of ice forms around the edges of the lakes every night 
the year round. They contain an excellent variety of fish 
called the pejerray, which is caught near the shore and sold at 
Puno and in other neighboring towns. The two largest lakes, 
Saracocha and Cachipascana, with several smaller ones in the 
same neighborhood, are owned by the family of Mr. Romana, 
president of Peru. He owns immense tracts of land in this 
locality, with thousands of sheep, cattle, llamas, alpacas and 
vicunas, which are herded upon it. 

A curious phenomenon about the lakes is that they keep at 
the same level all the time, regardless of the dry and rainy 
seasons. No amount of rain will make any difference with 
their depth, which, however, in the center is unknown. And 
this adds to the awe and mystery with which they are regarded 
by the Indians. There are no boats upon the lakes except 
a few small balsas, or rafts, made of bundles of straw, which 
keep very close to the shore, for fear of being drawn into 
whirlpools that are said to exist in the center. There is some 
foundation for this fear, for only two or three years ago a balsa 
containing five men disappeared in the darkness, and was 
never heard of again. Of course, it may have tipped over and 
its occupants have been paralyzed by the cold water in an 
ordinary way, but their bodies were never discovered, nor did 
the balsa ever float to shore. Therefore the people think the 
whole party was lured into a maelstrom and swallowed up by 
the mysterious waters. 

The whirlpool near the center of Lake Popo, which receives 
the waters of Lake Titicaca, is well known, and hundreds of 
men have lost their lives by venturing too near it. Boats that 
are drawn into the current are whirled swiftly around a few 
times, and then disappear. For the protection of navigators 
the government of Bolivia has anchored a lot of buoys in Lake 
Popo, and boatmen who observe them are in no danger. 
There is supposed to be an underground outflow from all of 
these lakes. It is claimed that articles which have been 
thrown into their waters have afterward been picked up on the 
seacoast near Arica, and careful observers say that on the 
beach in that locality are frequently found cornstalks, reeds 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 231 

and other debris which do not grow on the coast, but are 
found in great abundance among the interior lakes. 

The station house at Lagunillas, which was built of brick 
imported from the United States, was carried away by a 
cyclone in 1899. It was the first storm of that kind ever 
known in the Puna, and brought terror to the hearts of the 
natives, although no other destruction was noted. 

After crossing the grand divide at Crucero Alto you enter 
the great basin that lies between the two ranges of the Andes 
and is known to the natives as the Puna. It stretches to a 
distance of about 700 miles in length and varies from twenty 
to 300 miles in width. Before the time of the conquest it was 
the most populous and productive part of Peru, and the center 
of the great Inca empire. On either side this mighty table- 
land is supported by the mighty buttresses of the Andes and 
the Cordilleras, and ranges of snow-covered peaks can be seen 
on to the east and to the west from every eminence. At sev- 
eral points the two great ranges come together in a knot. 
Such is the case at the pass of La Raya, which is the favorite 
trail for crossing over to the eastern slope of the continent, and 
the gorge of the Vilcanota, a little stream which is the true 
source of the Amazon. Around the chains of snow-clad peaks 
is a vast chaos of mountains, tangled into ranges and cross 
ranges, bleak, barren and lifeless, which, like the pyramids of 
Egypt, have looked down upon centuries of civilization, and 
have seen the solution of problems which puzzle the minds of 
modern scientists. Between these mountains, wherever water 
can be found, are rich, productive valleys, called bolsones, or 
pockets. They are only specks on the map in comparison with 
the area of the desert, but yielded sustenance for an empire 
for many centuries, and there is every evidence that during 
the Incarial period they were taxed to their utmost. 

In no part of the world does nature assume more imposing 
forms nor offer more striking contrasts. The deserts and the 
mountains are as bare and repulsive as the Sahara, but the 
valleys are as rich and luxuriant and productive as those of 
Italy. It is no figure of speech to say that here eternal sum- 
mer sits side by side with everlasting winter, and that the per- 



232 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

fumes of flowers and fruits are borne across repulsive wastes 
of sand and rock. It was here under these conditions and in 
such a terrible struggle for existence that the Incas maintained 
a government, the first known to the world in which the equal 
rights of every human being were recognized, a community 
that furnished an ideal for modern socialism, and that wor- 
shiped a god whose instincts and attributes were almost 
parallel with those of the Jehovah of the Mosaic period. It 
was natural that men who shivered in the snowy mountains 
should recognize in the sun the source of heat and light, the 
greatest blessings they enjoyed, and hence it was given the 
chief place in their pantheon. 

The pastures improve as the railroad descends from the 
grand continental divide into the Puna, the air becomes 
moister, the soil is deeper, the rocks are not so numerous and 
the topography of the country resembles the great plateau of 
Colorado and Wyoming. The river Maravillas, which flows 
rapidly from springs in the mountains through this great plain, 
and during the rainy season carries a considerable body of 
water, is bordered with haciendas and villages of adobe huts, 
and irrigates a large area. At an elevation of 12,000 feet the 
cultivation of the soil can be made profitable, wheat, corn, 
barley and potatoes being the chief staples. The nights are 
cold, but the days are very hot all the year around, and are 
sufficient to ripen the more hardy vegetables like cabbages and 
turnips. The corn is peculiar, the ears being short and thick, 
not more than three inches in length. Two crops are raised 
every year, and they constitute the staple food of the Indian 
population, as well as the basis of the national drink called 
chicha, which was offered in a golden goblet to Pizarro in the 
bay of Tumbez when he first entered the Peruvian waters. 
The chroniclers relate that the great chieftain drank the bev- 
erage, smacked his lips, saying, "Es muy bueno" (It is very 
good), casually put the golden goblet into his saddlebag and 
rode on without further ceremony. 

Chicha tastes like a mixture of yeast and sour milk, and 
strangers are not fond of it, but vast quantities are consumed 
by the natives. Perhaps the stories that are told of the meth- 



OVER THE MOUNTAINS TO BOLIVIA 233 

ods of its manufacture have some influence upon the appetite 
of foreigners. The corn is first immersed in lye, which eats 
off the crust or hull. It is then crushed in a great earthen jar 
with a pestle, and warm water is poured upon it. It swells 
and ferments. In a few days, being subjected to the extreme 
changes of temperature, a liquid containing about thirty parts 
of alcohol is produced. A novel method of promoting fermen- 
tation is to add to the mixture small quantities of corn that 
have been masticated by old women of the family who have 
not outlived their teeth and have nothing else to do. People 
who visit the Indian villages tell of seeing long rows of ancient 
dames sitting with their backs against the wall on the sunny 
side of the house, chewing away with great industry and 
patience. As fast as a mouthful of corn has been reduced to 
the proper consistency it is placed in a little earthen dish and 
a new mouthful fresh from the cobs is subjected to the same 
process. I have not been able to ascertain the chemical form- 
ula, but it is asserted that the saliva of old women applied to 
the corn gives the chicha a flavor which it cannot otherwise 
obtain, and that adds greatly to its popularity. 

This railway is said to be the best in South America. It 
has a fine track, and the rails are quite as smooth as any we 
find in the States. The rolling stock, all manufactured at the 
shops in Arequipa, is in excellent condition, the station houses 
are neat and attractive, and the eating houses furnish meals 
that are abundant in quantity and well served. The patronage 
is not large. The population is scanty and is chiefly composed 
of Indians who have no occasion to travel. Most of the freight 
outward is furnished by the mines, and consists of silver, cop- 
per and gold ores. A considerable quantity of wool is 
exported, also, and a few hides. The inward freight is mer- 
chandise for Bolivia and Cuzco, and supplies for the mines. 
The greater part of it appears to have come from Germany, 
and it is remarkable how rapidly Germans are absorbing the 
commerce of this country. At the present rate they will very 
soon have a monopoly of the retail trade. 

On the mountain slopes one sees many prospect holes and 
evidences of a few profitable mines, but the largest deposits, 



234 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

at least those which pay the best, are on the eastern slope of 
the Cordilleras. According to the stories you hear, nature has 
concealed her richest treasures in the most inaccessible places. 
Near the town of Maravillas is a mountain of metal named 
Berenguela, similar to the iron mountain at Durango, from 
which an English company is now taking copper ore that yields 
from 6 to 25 per cent, manganese that is 12 per cent pure, iron 
that pays 10 per cent and silver carbonates that pay from $85 to 
$100 a ton. Near by is another mountain called Sotuca, 
belonging to the same company, which has a curious deposit 
of iron at its very top, and much of the ore is 65 per cent pure. 
There are fine cattle on all the ranges, much better-looking 
than those in the lower latitudes, and as the train approaches 
the center of the basin the population seems to increase, until 
we come to the town of Juliaca, where the railroad divides, 
one branch running due north along the center of the plateau 
to the ancient town of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire, 
and the other to the city of Puno, which lies upon the western 
shores of Lake Titicaca, where a line of steamers furnishes 
transportation to Bolivia. 



nm«MMrt«IMMMMMMH** 



XVI 

THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 

Arequipa is one of the quaintest and queerest old towns that 
ever was, just about two centuries behind the times and as 
conservative as it is antiquated. It is a subject of boasting 
that Arequipa is the most conservative city in South America, 
and that means in the world. There are few places even in 
Spain so old-fashioned, so much out of date. 

Arequipa has been famous for several things. First 
because the people are so devout in their religious observances. 

Second, Arequipa is famous for the purity of its atmos- 
phere. The air is clearer and the sky is bluer here than any- 
where else, they declare. Being entirely surrounded by 
deserts, every breeze that reaches Arequipa is sapped of its 
moisture. Nothing putrefies ; decay is arrested in animate as 
well as inanimate life, so that everything dead dries up and 
blows away. Because of its pure air Arequipa was selected 
as the location of the Harvard observatory in South America, 
from which Professor Bailey and a staff of assistants are now 
making a map of the stars and the constellations of the south- 
ern hemisphere. 

Arequipa has been celebrated, too, for several centuries as 
a seat of learning and a center of literary life. It has pro- 
duced many famous scholars and statesmen, and, although its 
university is not so much sought by students as it used to be, 
many young men are still sent here from all parts of Peru to 
be educated. 

Another source of satisfaction as well as fame is that the 
old Spanish families have kept their blood purer there than 
elsewhere, and the leading citizens of Arequipa can trace their 
pedigrees back further, it is claimed, than those of any other 
part of Peru, or South America for that matter. Therefore 

235 



236 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

they are proud — very proud and exclusive — a little better than 
the rest of mankind. But their pure air and pure blood is 
about all they have to brag of, for in the preservation of their 
dignity and the contemplation of their virtues, they have had 
little time to devote to other pursuits, and poverty prevails to 
a most painful degree among some of the oldest and most 
aristocratic families. The women are beautiful, the men are 
reserved and austere; progress and modern ideas are looked 
upon as an evidence of vulgarity, and the fact that Arequipa 
is so slow and old-fashioned is a matter of congratulation 
rather than regret. 

The city has a background that is of itself remarkable. 
Three massive mountains, always covered with snow, lie 
between it and the sea. On the right is Pinchu-Pinchu, a 
long sierra with deep crevasses that are always filled with 
snow and glaciers. On the left is Chachani, of similar char- 
acter and topography, while in the center is El Misti, one of 
the most stately and beautiful mountains in the world, distin- 
guished for its symmetry. They all reach an altitude of 20,000 
feet approximately, and very few cities enjoy so beautiful a 
landscape. 

By the side of El Misti is a miniature of the grander peak, 
known as Misti Chico (Little Misti), having the same shape 
and a height of about 8,000 feet. El Misti was formerly a 
source of apprehension because it is an active volcano with sul- 
phurous vapors constantly issuing from the crater, but Misti 
Chico, the little one, is all right. 

In 1868 Arequipa was almost entirely destroyed by an 
earthquake. Some 5,000 people were killed and more than 
half the houses were destroyed. The seal of the city of Are- 
quipa bears a representation of the volcano, with smoke rising 
from its peak, and the natives of the place call themselves the 
sons and daughters of El Misti. 

Notwithstanding the purity of the atmosphere Arequipa is 
an unhealthy place, because of the unspeakable filth in the 
streets and the clouds of dust, full of all sorts of disease germs, 
constantly arising from them. Nature alone protects the peo- 
ple from a destructive epidemic. Through every street runs 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 237 

a little stream of water, or an acequia, as it is called, into 
which all garbage and offal of the houses is thrown. The 
odors are very offensive to strangers, although the inhabitants 
appear to have become accustomed to them. The filth that 
does not reach these surface sewers is left lying upon the 
cobblestone pavement to be devoured by wolfish-looking dogs. 
There are no buzzards there at present. They were poisoned 
last winter from eating the flesh of dogs that had been killed 
by order of the municipal authorities. In nearly all the South 
American cities large flocks of buzzards are found serving as 
boards of health, and they do their work efficiently. It has 
now become necessary for Arequipa to replace those which 
were destroyed, and it is a matter of serious discussion how it 
shall be done. 

The residences of this Rome and Athens of the South 
American continent are of the most substantial but primitive 
character. In other parts of Peru the danger from earthquakes 
is avoided by using elastic bamboo splints for walls and parti- 
tions, but the altitude and climate of Arequipa require greater 
protection for its inhabitants. Therefore the houses are made 
only one story in height and as substantial as possible, it being 
asserted that one-third of the area of the city is covered by the 
foundation and partition walls of its houses, many of them 
being six, eight and nine feet thick, so, when it becomes nec- 
essary to cut a window or a door, it is as much labor as boring 
a tunnel. The walls of the churches are sustained by enor- 
mous buttresses of stone and adobe. On the side of El Misti 
are several valuable quarries, from which a soft, light and 
porous stone is taken for building purposes. The cathedral, 
which is a stately and beautiful example of the architectural 
art, is built of that material. Its pillars and towers, which 
were destroyed by the earthquake of 1868, have recently been 
restored and are models of symmetry. 

The houses are dark, gloomy and comfortless. Their enor- 
mous walls surround patios in the Spanish style, from which 
all the rooms are reached and lighted. Most of them have no 
windows, and get all their light and ventilation through the 
doors. 



238 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

There is no artificial heat, because the people think it is 
tinhealthful, notwithstanding the fact that when the sun goes 
down the atmosphere is usually cold. In June, for example, 
the variation of the thermometer from 7 o'clock in the morning 
to 2 o'clock in the afternoon was from 56 to 72 degrees Fahr- 
enheit. In August the average temperature at 7 o'clock in 
the morning was 35.6. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon it was 
71.4, and these extraordinary figures do not represent 
extremes, for the contrast of the noonday heat with the tem- 
perature after midnight is much greater than at 7 o'clock, 
when the sun has had a full hour to warm the atmosphere. 
The difference of temperature between the sunny and the 
shady side of the street is often as great as ten degrees. 

These extremes naturally have a serious effect upon the 
human system, and particularly upon the health of children, 
especially when no attempt is made to obviate or modify them 
by artificial means. There is not a stove in Arequipa except 
at the Harvard University observatory. There is one fireplace 
in the house of a foreigner, in which he burns the knots of 
scrub pines brought down from the mountains, but in all the 
other houses people put on overcoats and wrap themselves in 
blankets and try to keep warm that way. 

Because of the pure atmosphere and arid climate, the 
absence of clouds and the high elevation, the city of Arequipa 
was selected as the site of the astronomical and meteorological 
observatories of Harvard University, for which funds were 
provided by a bequest from the late Uriah A. Boyden. They 
are under the charge of Prof. Solon I. Bailey, who is assisted 
by Prof. Winslow Upton, Dr. DeLisle Stewart, Mr. W. B. 
Clymer, and others from the home observatory at Cambridge. 
These gentlemen at the observatory in Arequipa are engaged 
in making a map of the heavens of the southern hemisphere, 
the elevation and the purity of the atmosphere enabling them 
to reach many stars that are not visible in other localities, 
while meteorological records of great scientific usefulness, 
made by automatic instruments on the top of the volcano 
Misti, are being accumulated. 

"Our first meterological station was established by Prof. 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 239 

William H. Pickering in 1892," said Professor Bailey, "at an 
elevation of 16,650 feet on the mountain Charchani, but the 
exposure of the instruments was not favorable, and in 1893 we 
succeeded in establishing a new station on the summit of El 
Misti, which is 3,500 feet higher than the one on Mont Blanc, 
and therefore the highest in the world. The instruments now 
in use on the summit are dry and wet bulb thermometers, rain 
gauges, a Richard barograph, a thermograph, a hydrograph 
and a meteorograph constructed by Fergesson of the Blue Hill 
observatory especially for this station, and designed to record 
temperature, pressure, humidity and the direction and velocity 
of the wind, and to run three months without rewinding. 
When the station was first established it was regularly visited 
by observers once in ten days. Since then about once a 
month. On these visits the clocks of the self-recording instru- 
ments are rewound, the record sheets changed and the read- 
ings made. The trip to the summit is by no means easy, but 
we have made a good road, and it can now be accomplished in 
two days, and entirely on muleback. The night is spent in a 
hut at the base of the peak at an altitude of 15,700 feet, where 
we have what is called the Mont Blanc station, because its 
altitude and the summit of Mont Blanc are almost the same. 

"The volcano Misti," continued Professor Bailey, "forms 
the center, and from its symmetry, height and nearness, the 
most imposing figure in the great group of mountains that fill 
more than a third of the horizon of Arequipa. It stands 
isolated in a great stretch of barren pampa. The plaza of the 
city has an elevation of about 7,600 feet, but the surrounding 
plain is much higher, and for convenience we estimate that the 
Misti, as a separate and distinct mountain, rises from a mean 
elevation of 11,000 feet. We find that its diameter at this 
altitude is 34,312 feet, its height 19,173 feet, and its volume 
2,465,000,000,000 cubic feet. Assuming the specific gravity of 
the materials ejected from its crater to be two and five-tenths 
times that of water, the weight of the mountain is 192,000,- 
000,000 tons, but this represents only a small part of the 
material that has been emitted from the volcano, for there are 
vast deposits of lava extending in all directions, and the deserts 



a 4 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

for many miles distant are composed to unknown depths of 
volcanic ash and rock. 

"During the wet season the storms leave Misti covered 
with snow down to 16,000 feet and sometimes to 14,000 feet, 
but if the following day chances to be clear the fresh snow 
will disappear before night. The snow always lasts longer on 
the southwest side of the mountain, and on the north side it 
disappears very rapidly, which is due to the fact that we are 
south of the equator, and that during the clear months of the 
year the sun is north of the zenith. It is a fact, however, that 
snow extends to a much lower level on the neighboring ranges 
of mountains. This is attributed to internal heat, as the Misti 
is a volcano in a state of considerable activity, and exhibitions 
of hot vapor, sulphuric fumes and other phenomenon are 
apparent to all observers. 

"The cone of the mountain is composed of rugged masses 
of rock, the remains of ancient lava flows, and vast slopes of 
volcanic sand, whose angle varies between 30 and 35 degrees. 
The few persons who have been fortunate enough to reach the 
summit have been surprised at the extent and gloomy gran- 
deur of the scenery. The crest is unmistakably a crater formed 
by the original upheaval, and the maximum diameter is about 
2,800 feet. The diameter of a new and comparatively modern 
crater is about 1,500 feet at the top and 500 feet at the bottom, 
which is nearly level and composed of yellow lava and sulphur. 
The vapors playing upon this produce the appearance of boil- 
ing sulphur, and in former times people reported flames, 
which, if it were an established fact, would be of great interest. 

"The first ascents were undoubtedly made before the 
arrival of the Spaniards, and are beyond the reach of history 
and even tradition. Within the crater are remains of walls 
and firewood, which must have been left there by human 
hands, and the old writers report that pagan sacrificial rites 
were celebrated there, or perhaps it may have been the custom 
among the Indians to bury their chiefs at this great altitude. 
The first expedition, in 1677, found vestiges of a stone struc- 
ture marking the form of two or three rooms, which still 
existed two centuries later, and are a matter of great interest. 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 241 

That expedition is said to have ascended the volcano by 
ecclesiastical and royal authority to investigate the cause of a 
dense column of smoke seen rising from the summit, and at 
other times during the same period similar phenomena 
appeared, but nothing definite or authoritative exists on this 
subject, and for two centuries at least El Misti has been semi- 
quiescent, emitting only vapors in varying quantities. 

"Many persons have visited the crater during the last two 
centuries, but no one has descended into the crater. With 
proper appliances this would be by no means impossible but 
for the sulphurous vapors which abound there and which would 
probably be fatal to life. For awhile there was great enthusi- 
asm for ascending the Misti, but this interest was terminated 
in 1878 by the sad fate of two English tourists- — Messrs. Rider 
and Rothwell — who ascended, and in attempting to make the 
circuit of the crater lost their way, became exhausted by 
hunger, thirst and fatigue, and perished among the cliffs on 
the north side of the mountain near the present mule path. 

"A variety of coarse grass, known as 'paja,' and a mosslike 
plant growing in large masses, called 'yarata,' are found as 
high as 15,000 feet, and scattering specimens are occasionally 
seen at an altitude of 17,000 feet. Vicuna and guanacos feed 
as high as 14,000 feet, and at 16,000 feet various birds and a 
small animal resembling a rabbit have been met with. Con- 
dors have been seen from the summit flying at an elevation 
much greater than that of the mountain. 

"At an altitude of 13,300 feet there is a wretched little hut, 
known as the 'Tambo del Alto de los Huesos,' where we found 
an old woman, with a grandchild of 6 or 7 years, who furnished 
the poorest kind of accommodations. During the first evening 
we spent upon the mountain in August 1893, she regaled us 
with stories of her experience of twenty-five years in that 
dreary spot, and said that many people, priests and officials, 
Arequipians and foreigners had tried to climb the mountain, 
but most of them had died, and those who died were foreign- 
ers, which was rather discouraging under the circumstances. 

"At the height of 16,500 feet there is another tambo, or 
hut, of rough stones, with a roof thatched with straw, known 



242 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

as the 'Inn of the Water of Miracles,' from the fact that 
according to tradition, a long time ago, the Lord appeared and 
ordered water to flow from the ground. Near the hut is a 
perennial spring of good water, welling out of the dry sand, 
which, curiously enough, only flows during the daytime. The 
water begins to run about 9 in the morning, and ceases 
between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 

"In 1893," continued Professor Bailey, "with great diffi- 
culty we built a mule trail to the top of the mountain and 
established our meteorological station there. Since then we 
have visited the place frequently, and the mountain is always 
the source of awe-inspiring phenomena as well as scientific 
interest." 

In the principal street of Arequipa, half a block from the 
main plaza and the city hall, is a peculiar institution, which 
we would call in the north a foundlings' home. The most 
interesting feature of the place is a square hole cut in a heavy 
oaken door about 12 by 18 inches in size. This aperture 
closes with a little slide which may be easily opened, and on 
the inside will be found a box and a bell. Any person 
having a superfluous baby can poke it through that hole, drop 
it into the box, ring the bell and walk away. 

This institution has been in operation for more than a cen- 
tury and a half. It was founded by a benevolent gentleman 
named Chaves, and is supported by a lottery, private subscrip- 
tions and aid from the state, being under the care of a noble 
woman of great business ability — Madre Angelica of the 
Catholic Sisterhood of Mercy. Every child that arrives in 
that mysterious way is taken to her motherly arms to be 
nursed and coddled, clothed and educated and taught a trade, 
and finally graduates from the institution into some occupa- 
tion, or is adopted by some family who may or may not have 
had a knowledge of its birth. Unless the child has a name 
tacked to its clothing, it is christened by the mother superior, 
and thereafter bears the family name of Chaves. The number 
of Chaves in this city and vicinity is very large. 

Some of the graduates have attained eminence and influ- 
ence in the community, but most of them belong to the labor- 



S' 










THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 243 

ing class. All, however, remember with gratitude and 
affection the institution which sheltered them in their infancy 
and gave them their education, and which is always a home to 
which they may return in sickness or trouble or in old age. 
Twice a year, on the anniversary of the foundation of the 
institution and upon the saint's day of Madre Angelica, a 
reunion is attended by as many of the former inmates as can 
arrange to come. The ceremonies are similar to those of our 
Thanksgiving day. A religious service is held and a sermon 
is preached from an appropriate text, and then all join in a 
good dinner with reminiscences and congratulations and hopes 
for the future. 

In visiting this institution I was impressed with its compre- 
hensive benevolence, and although a good many children 
showed evidences of aristocratic block and some were plainly 
of foreign parentage, the majority of them were much more 
clean, comfortable and well cared for than they could have 
been in the ordinary home. Interesting romances are told of 
the institution. Often babies left there in the night are taken, 
away by remorseful mothers the next morning. It is common 
too, shortly after the arrival of an infant, to have a tearful 
woman apply for a position as wet nurse, and although she 
may not always suspect it, the experienced nuns often compre- 
hend the situation, and place her own baby in her arms. 

Saint Francis paid a seven days' visit to Saint Dominic 
while I was in Arequipa and returned to his own church 
attended by an imposing retinue and much ceremony. The 
town was alive with flags. The public buildings, the plaza 
and many private houses and stores were decorated. A pro- 
cession with two bands of music and bodies of military, civil 
officials, monks, benevolent societies, religious orders and 
citizens attended mass at Saint Dominic's church, and then 
escorted the image of Saint Francis through the principal 
streets to the chapel adjoining the Franciscan monastery, and 
there remained until another mass was celebrated with unusual 
formality. During the progress of the procession, fireworks 
and firecrackers were exploded in large quantities, and as the 
image of the saint, which was carried upon the shoulders of 



244 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

peons under a canopy, passed by, everybody kneeled and 
crossed himself and said a prayer. 

The event was duly reported in the morning papers, one 
of them beginning with the following paragraph : 

"The image of the Patriarch of Aziz yesterday returned to 
his own temple after a seven days' visit at the temple of Santo 
Domingo. He was accompanied by a delegation from the 
order of Dominicans, by representatives of the municipality, 
by a military escort and a large concourse of citizens, and the 
progress of the saint through the streets was the occasion of a 
popular demonstration." 

In Arequipa, the wealthy, influential and aristocratic fam- 
ilies nearly all belong to the class known as "fanaticos. " 

It is customary for business and professional men to retire 
for a few days every year, which they spend in some monas- 
tery or other retreat, purging themselves of their sins by 
fasting, prayer, scourging and other forms of torture. Piety, 
or, at least, the observance of the forms of religion, is essen- 
tial to secure and retain the respect of the people. Nowhere 
else in South America do the men pretend to perform their 
religious duties. One is accustomed to see only women at 
church, but in Arequipa almost every native man of business 
attends mass every morning before he goes to his office or his 
shop, and at any hour during the day, if you enter a church, 
you will find as many men as women, kneeling with clasped 
hands before the altar. Protestants or "Evangelicos," as they 
are called, are ostracised, and masons are forbidden to live in 
this city. 

A magician from North America who visited Arequipa, 
"billed" the town with attractive posters such as are used by 
Hermann, Kellar and other sleight-of-hand men on the northern 
continent, the chief performer being represented in the pictures 
on the most familiar terms with devils of various sizes. The 
day after these posters appeared on the dead walls of the city 
the magician received a visit from the bishop, who inquired 
whether he pretended to exercise a supernatural influence over 
evil spirits. The magician replied that he did not, that his 
tricks were entirely mechanical and were produced by appa- 



v 




THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 245 

ratus which he had himself invented, and by the dexterity of 
his hands. The bishop admonished him that this fact should 
be fully explained to the public, because an impression to the 
contrary had been created, and unless it was corrected it would 
be necessary to prohibit the performance. 

The magician promised to make the matter clear to his 
audience before commencing the first performance, and he 
endeavored to do so to the satisfaction of two priests who sat 
in one of the front rows for the purpose of censorship. The 
next morning, however, the magician found that all the posters 
that contained pictures of devils had been scraped off by order 
of the bishop, but the next night he hired men to replace them 
and pasted the biggest poster in his collection upon the walls 
of one of the churches. In the morning there was a crowd of 
curious people around it, watching a gang of men who were 
scraping it off. Everybody in town knew of the incident, 
and it turned out to be a valuable advertisement. 

In the old times before the railway was built it was a 
journey of twenty or thirty days across the desert to reach 
Bolivia, and even now, strange as it may appear, some prim- 
itive-minded people prefer to go that way. Thousands of 
burros and llamas are still engaged in competition with the 
railways transporting ore, wool, hides, coca, chinchona and 
other natural products from the interior to Arica and other 
ports, and carrying back into the mountains cotton goods, 
hardware and other merchandise of all sorts from England 
and France, and even more from Germany, as the Germans 
are rapidly assuming the lion's share of the trade. The dis- 
tance by railway to Lake Titicaca is 325 miles. The burro 
trail is considerably shorter, averaging 250 miles, because the 
animals can climb mountains that are impassable for railway 
trains, and many men, women and even families spend their 
entire lives upon it. You can see them at the stations when 
they are resting, and from the car windows when the trail and 
the railway track run in parallel lines. They trudge along, 
patient, enduring and oblivious to the value of time and the 
sense of fatigue. 

The arrerios in charge of llama and burro trains are usually 



246 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

accompanied by their entire families, and as their lives are 
spent in coming and going over the burning sands and the 
sharp rocks of the desert it is a matter of comparative indiffer- 
ence to them how long the journey lasts. The animals are 
the capital of the arrerio. The desert is his home. His wife 
helps in the driving and sleeps by his side on the sand. They 
have no tent or other shelter, but wrap their ponchos around 
them and lie down to pleasant dreams in the frosty air with 
their bare feet and legs exposed, while the ice forms in the 
little streams beside them. 

Sometimes they are overtaken by snow-storms in the 
mountains, but they do not seem to suffer and are seldom 
known to perish in the cold, although they wade along in their 
bare feet. When you express surprise at their endurance 
those who have had experience in both continents remind you 
that in Canada and the northern parts of the United States 
people drive long distances with the thermometer at 40 below 
zero without covering their faces, and the boys snowball and 
skate in a very low temperature without freezing their hands 
or their heads. It is merely a matter of habit. The South 
American Indian bundles all the blankets he can find around 
his head and keeps his feet cool. The North American 
reverses the rule — keeps his feet warm and exposes his head 
and arms. 

Children who are too small to walk, babies two or three 
days old, are allowed to ride on the donkeys when their 
parents are driving the train. They are born by the wayside 
like the lambs of the flocks, and no more fuss is made by the 
mother than you hear from the patient ewe. They spend the 
first years of their lives in a pannier on the side of a burro or 
a llama, where they roll around among the surplus clothing 
and cooking utensils of the family. For a change the mother 
wraps the babe in a poncho and slips it over her back, and 
when it makes a requisition for supplies she sits down by the 
roadside and issues rations from the bountiful commissary 
departments which nature has provided. Thus life begins for 
many an arrerio, and thus it ends. You see old men and 
"women, as well as children, stumbling over the stones in the 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 247 

dust of a llama train or a pack of burros whose weary, event- 
less years have been spent following those same animals, and 
whose first and only home is the mud hut in which sooner or 
later they must lie down and die. 

It takes from twenty to thirty days, as I have said, for pack 
trains to travel from the seaports on the western coast of 
South America to the interior cities that lie in the puna, as 
they call the great basin between the two ranges of the Andes, 
and they carry everything. The steamers upon Lake Titicaca 
were brought piece by piece from Arica, a distance of 250 
miles, on the backs of mules, and were put together on their 
arrival at Puno. The machinery in most of the mines had the 
same experience, and before the railway was built everything 
had to go that way. Nowadays transportation is comparatively 
easy and cheap. The freight charges on the pack trains are 
surprisingly low, even as low as those charged by the railway 
— from 20 to 25 shillings a ton for a distance of 300 miles or 
less. Mr. Grundy, who runs the smelter at Maravillas, tells 
me that they pay only 10 cents a load for ore brought in by 
the llamas, no matter what the distance may be. 

A llama will bear 100 pounds and no more. He will carry 
his load of ore or wood or coca or other merchandise up and 
down precipitous pathways, where no other beast • of burden 
can go, and where it is difficult for man to follow, but when 
he is overloaded he resents it and lies down. No amount of 
bullying or beating or coaxing can induce him to rise until the 
excess is removed from his back when he solemnly resumes 
his feet and marches off with his legitimate load. His cargo 
is packed in sacks or panniers, one-half on either side. There- 
fore all freight subject to this mode of transportation must be 
packed accordingly, and the packages limited to fifty pounds. 
Mr. Grundy says that the distance from the mine to the 
smelter or the railway station may be five or it may be fifty 
miles, the charge for transportation is always the same. 

The reports from the custom house at Arica for 1898, the 
latest obtainable, show that 11,932 cargoes were transported by 
mules to Bolivia, 24,522 by burros and 25,999 by llamas, mak- 
ing a total of 62,456, having a total weight of 9,851,000 pounds. 



248 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

As the average cargo for a mule is 225 pounds, for a donkey 
150 pounds, and for a llama 100 pounds, the amount of freight 
thus carried over the desert and the mountains to the interior 
of Bolivia alone from that one port would furnish cargoes for 
43,338 mules, 65,673 donkeys or 98,510 llamas. 

It is quite probable that an equal amount of cargo was car- 
ried by the same means to the interior of Peru. 

As the camel is to the people of the deserts of Asia and 
Africa, so is the llama to those who dwell in the Andes, a 
faithful, patient and enduring beast, docile, sure-footed and 
speedy, without which the inhabitants would be utterly help- 
less in some sections, for mules and horses cannot endure the 
high altitude and the rarefied atmosphere. Even the burros 
have their nostrils slit or large round holes punched through 
them in order to make it easier for them to breathe. When a 
horse is first brought into the high altitude of the Andes the 
blood drips from his mouth, ears and nose, and it takes a long 
time for him to become acclimated. Mules are more enduring 
and burros are better still, but the llama is native to the snow- 
clad peaks and thrives best where other animals find existence 
difficult if not impossible. 

It costs nothing to keep llamas. They pick up their food 
by the wayside. It looks incredible to one who travels over 
the terrible deserts, but it is nevertheless a fact. Like 
camels, they can go a long time without food or water, and 
grow fat on amazing short rations at all times, but when the 
arrerio comes to a good piece of grazing he lets his amimals 
linger and feed until they are satisfied. It may be an hour or 
it may be two or three days, if the grass is good and plenty. 
Time is no object, and the welfare of the beasts is very 
important. 

Llamas are stately creatures, proud and dignified. Their 
little heads are always in the air, and their giraffe-like necks are 
proudly and gracefully curved. Their eyes are large, lustrous, 
intelligent and melancholy, and have an expression of suspi- 
cion or constant inquiry, Their ears are shapely and quiver 
continually like those of a high-mettled stallion, as if to catch 
the first sound of approaching danger. When frightened they 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 249 

scatter over the desert in every direction, and when cornered 
they cluster in groups with their tails together and their heads 
out to meet the enemy. Their only weapon of defense is their 
saliva, which, when angry, they squirt through their teeth in 
showers, as a Chinese laundryman sprinkles clothes. A drop 
of this saliva falling in the ear or eye or on any part of the 
body where the skin is broken will produce a painful irritation 
and dangerous sores like the venom of a serpent. 

The drivers keep them together by throwing coils of rope 
over their heads so that the neck of one is a hitching post for 
another. They are such fools that they will not run in the 
same direction, nor even in couples, but every one strikes out 
for himself when they become excited. When they lie down 
they fold their long and slender legs under them in some 
mysterious manner and chew their cuds with an air of contem- 
plation and content. The kids afford excellent food, but old 
llamas who have been on the road a long time are rank and 
tough masses of muscle, tendon and gristle. 

Although the llama is naturally docile and obedient, he has 
a furious temper, and duels take place in the herd which con- 
tinue until one of the combatants, and often both, are killed. 
They bite and kick, and make a horrible noise, and when the 
weaker one tries to run away the stronger will pursue it and 
keep up the combat until death ensues. 

They always go in packs, and will follow a leader, which 
is usually a pet animal decorated with bits of gay calico and 
ribbons braided in its wool. It carries a little tinkling bell 
around its neck, like a madrina, the gray mare that is usually 
found in every drove of mules. The arrerio or his wife goes 
ahead on foot or on a burro. The pet follows, and the pack 
follow him, stopping to graze as they go. If kindly treated, 
the llama can be trained to all sorts of tricks, like a colt or a 
lamb, but it is not naturally intelligent. It is one of the most 
stupid of animals. The female llama is never loaded, but is 
kept in the pasture. She costs about $1.50 when young, and 
twice as much when in her prime. The males cost from $2.50 
to $5, according to age and condition. A burro is worth from 
$7 to $10. An Indian who has twenty-five to thirty llamas or 



250 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

burros is therefore well fixed and can make a good living. 
He is an independent transportation company all by himself, 
and can always find something to do; His rates of freight are 
fixed by a custom that is as old as the trail he follows, and are 
never changed. The value of money may go up and down 
according to the rates of exchange, but the charges for trans- 
portation by a llama train go on the same forever, and the 
arrerio insists upon being paid in Bolivian money, the little sil- 
ver coin that was originally intended to correspond to a franc. 
This is said to be due to the fact that the Peruvian coins are 
counterfeited, while those of Bolivia are not.. People say 
that in one of the villages on Lake Titicaca there is a man 
running a private mint and turning out Peruvian coins in large 
quantities. The Indians are aware of this, and therefore insist 
upon receiving their pay in Bolivian money. 

Llamas are never ridden, except by children, who some- 
times mount their pets, and unless they are very tame and 
well trained they will not permit even a child to climb upon 
their backs. Nor is the male llama ever sheared, although the 
female in the pasture is usually clipped in the spring. 

The llama was the beast of burden of the Incas, and to its 
possession is attributed their superiority over and final subju- 
gation of the neighboring races. 

The vicuna, a sort of gazelle, a gentle, timid animal, is also 
native to this part of the Andes, and is found nowhere else. 
It has long soft silken hair of cafe* au lait color, with a peculiar 
luster. In the days of the Incas, before the Spanish invasion, 
the vicuna wool was the exclusive material for the royal robes, 
and none but members of the imperial family and nobles of a 
certain rank were allowed to wear it. Ponchos that are 1,000 
years old have been taken from the graves in the Inca ceme- 
teries. The animal was protected by the laws of the empire, 
and was allowed to go unharmed in the mountains, where it 
accumulated in great numbers until remorselessly slaugh- 
tered for food by the Spanish invaders. The Indians expected 
that some severe penalty would be visited upon the Spaniards 
for this sacrilege, but divine retribution was withheld. The 
vicunas are now comparatively scarce, and very little of the 



THE QUAINT OLD CITY OF AREQUIPA 251 

wool is shipped out of the country. The entire product is 
absorbed in making ponchos upon the native looms. The 
wool is so light and yet so warm that it is admirably adapted 
for that purpose, and a vicuna poncho is considered an essen- 
tial part of the wardrobe of every gentleman. The Germans 
have succeeded in imitating it with great accuracy, but a 
native Bolivian is never deceived. 

The guanaco is a cross of the vicuna and the llama, and 
is bred both for its fur and its flesh. It has many of the char- 
acteristics of the North American antelope, and the hide is 
invaluable to the Indians, particularly in the southern part of 
the continent, as it furnishes the material of which their gar- 
ments are made. The guanaco fur, however, is never woven 
like the vicuna. It is never removed from the pelt. 

The alpaca is said to be a cross of the llama and the sheep, 
but that is denied by zoologists, who claim that it is also a 
native of this country and was abundant here before the 
Spaniards came. It certainly thrives nowhere else, and all of 
the alpaca wool that is used in Europe comes from South 
America. Some years ago an enterprising Australian by the 
name of Ledger attempted to transplant the alpaca to Aus- 
tralia. The export of the animal was forbidden by the 
Peruvian government, but Mr. Ledger succeeded in driving a 
flock across the Cordillera into Chile and shipping them from 
the port of Copiapo. Many of them died at sea. The remain- 
der arrived in Australia much reduced in flesh and vitality. 
Within four years after their arrival the entire flock was 
extinct, because they could not live in a moist and warm, 
atmosphere. The experiment has been repeated several times, 
with no better success. 

The alpaca wool is claimed to be the finest in the world, 
the staple averaging twelve inches long and being sometimes 
twenty inches, while that of ordinary wool is not more 
than six or eight. An interesting story is told of the intro- 
duction of alpaca into British factories. It was used by the 
Incas and by the Spaniards after the conquest, and a consid- 
erable quantity was sent to Spain, but curiously enough the 
Englishmen never got hold of it, and although its superiority 



252 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

was apparent, there was no demand for it in the wool 
market. 

The story goes that about 1830 a Bradford weaver by the 
name of Titus Salt, while walking through the Liverpool docks 
one day, observed a broken bale of an odd-looking wool of 
intensely black color. He pulled out a handful, rubbed it, 
twisted it, tried to break it, and finally took it home and 
examined it more carefully. The next morning he returned 
to the dock, hunted up the people to whom the broken bale 
was consigned, and found that they had a number of bales of 
the same material, which they called alpaca wool, for which 
they had been unable to find a market. Mr. Salt took the 
whole lot off their hands for a nominal price, and spent a good 
deal of money in adapting his machinery to spinning and 
weaving it. This was the first introduction of alpaca wool into 
England, and practically the market in Europe although a 
limited quantity had been previously used in Spain. Bradford 
has continued to this day to be the center of the trade. 



XVII 
CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 

Four hundred years ago Cuzco was the most important 
city in America, with a population of 200,000 or more, and a 
wealth that few communities of human kind have ever sur- 
passed. It is now a dismal, dirty, half-deserted habitation of 
from thirty to forty thousand ignorant and indolent Indians 
with perhaps five or six hundred whites who own the property 
and conduct what little business is done there. Cuzco was the 
capital of the Inca empire, and the residence of a long line of 
kings who lived in splendid circumstances and were sur- 
rounded by a court of enormous riches and remarkable taste 
for art and architecture, considering the isolation in which 
they lived and their entire ignorance of the existence of other 
nations beyond the mountains and the ocean that confined 
them. 

Each successive Inca is said to have erected a new palace 
at Cuzco, and more spacious than those of his predecessors 
and several erected temples and convents for religious pur- 
poses that rivaled the royal residences in extent and magnifi- 
cence. It is almost impossible to believe the narratives of the 
writers who went there with Pizarro and witnessed the city 
before it was plundered and destroyed ; but the ruins are mute 
witnesses of the opulence and power of the Incas, and go far 
to corroborate the stories that amazed the people of Europe in 
the sixteenth century and still seem fabulous to us. There 
are now in the city of Cuzco, for a population less than 40,000, 
thirty churches and eleven convents and monasteries. Seven 
of the latter, however, have been suppressed. The city is the 
seat of a bishopric and a university, which occupy structures 
of imposing character that were either the palaces or shrines 
of prehistoric construction or have been rebuilt from the ruins. 

253 



254 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The church of the Jesuits, the cathedral, and the church of 
La Merced, which front the public square, are marvels of 
architectural beauty, and the courts and cloisters of the con- 
vent attached to the latter church are admirable in their pro- 
portions and are surrounded by colonnades of white stone 
elaborately carved, which in grace and harmony challenge 
comparison with the great cathedrals and monasteries of 
Europe. Within this church lie the remains of Juan and 
Gonzalvo Pizarro, the brothers of the conqueror of Peru, and 
those of Almagro, his partner in the conquest. There are 
other churches of imposing architecture built from the ruins of 
the Inca palaces and temples, which perhaps were more 
splendid in their day than anything that existed in the new 
world, but they are all the victims of time and negligence, 
and are crumbling to pieces. 

Ninety per cent or more of the population are pure Indians, 
and the Quichua language, which was spoken by the Incas, is 
still in common use. In fact, the great majority of the people 
do not understand Spanish. The whites, who are compara- 
tively few, are priests and monks, government officials, 
haciendados who live most of the time upon their estates in 
the valley, and a few foreign shopkeepers, mostly Germans. 
Some of the old families still retain ancestral homes filled with 
massive furniture, gilded mirrors and costly damask hangings 
that were brought to Peru 250 years ago, when it was the 
richest and the most extravagant country on earth, and when 
the nobility and wealth were concentrated at Cuzco. Most of 
these houses are in a state of advanced decay, for their pro- 
prietors are suffering from a hereditary and incurable disease 
called pride and poverty. Their estates have been ruined by 
neglect and the devastation of revolutionary armies, and their 
mines are no longer profitable because of the low price of 
silver. They lived on borrowed money as long as the bankers 
and commission houses would accept mortgages upon their 
plantations, and now nobody knows and many people wonder 
where they find the means of sustenance. Their pride will 
not permit them to work, and their poverty makes it impossi- 
ble for them to develop the natural resources that lie dormant 



CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 255 

in their property. Most of the money that comes into Cuzco 
now is sent to buy wool, for the mountains are covered with 
flocks of alpacas and other breeds of sheep whose fleeces com- 
mand a high price in the foreign markets. A few enterprising 
foreigners contribute to the general welfare by operating 
copper mines, and if permanent peace could be assured, Cuzco 
might sometime recover its former prosperity; but I doubt 
whether the present population is capable of acquiring that 
human talent known as enterprise. If their ancestors had 
shown as much energy in the development of the vast riches 
that are buried in the mountains as they displayed in searching 
the ruins of the Inca edifices for gold and other treasure, 
there would have been permanent prosperity, and even now, 
after 350 years have been spent in digging for secret vaults 
and other places of concealment, the Spanish inhabitants of 
that part of Peru can always raise money somehow to pay the 
expense of chasing some wild goose that is supposed to lay 
golden eggs. 

For example, on the road from Puno to Cuzco, at the sum- 
mit of a hill, in the crater of a volcano, is a small and mys- 
terious lake called Urcos, which has no outlet and no bottom. 
For more than three centuries the inhabitants of that region 
and many speculators from Europe have been plunging year 
after year into its icy waters to recover a golden chain that 
belonged to the Inca Huayna Capac, which was thrown in 
there to spite the Spaniards. This chain, according to the 
tales of the writers of the time of the conquest, was of pure 
gold, wrought into links about one foot in length and ' ' as large 
as a man's arm." It was long enough to stretch twice around 
the grand plaza in Cuzco, which is nearly as large as Madison 
Square in New York, so that it must have been nearly half a 
mile in length. When Pizarro and his squadrons approached 
Cuzco the custodians of the Inca's palace fled with the women 
of the royal family, and carried with them such articles of 
value as could be concealed and transported upon the backs 
of the llamas. Before they Ived gone many miles they found 
the great chain of gold a serious obstacle to their progress, 
and the high priest, who seems to have been in charge of the 



256 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

party, commanded the servants to cast it into the waters of 
the lake. The names of the priest and his companions who 
witnessed the act are given in the early chronicles, with all the 
details of the transaction, and an account of the efforts that 
were made to recover the treasure. Those efforts have been 
continued ever since, with more or less interruption. At one 
time a syndicate called the Huayna Capac Chain Recovery 
Company was organized, with a capital of $5,000,000, for the 
purpose of boring a tunnel to drain the lake. After spending 
a large sum of money it was found that the mountain was 
composed almost entirely of living rock, so that the enterprise 
was abandoned. 

It was at Cuzco, more than a hundred years ago, that 
Tupac Amaru, a descendant of Huascar, the last of the Incas, 
organized an uprising of the Indians to wrest the capital of 
his fathers from the hands of the Spaniards, and exterminate 
the foreign invaders of Peru. For a time it appeared that he 
might be successful, and that the banner of the Incas might 
again float above the massive walls of the great fortress, but 
he was betrayed and taken prisoner, and after being com- 
pelled to witness the execution of his wife and son, he was 
himself "quartered" by wild horses in the great square of 
Cuzco under the walls of three churches dedicated to a merci- 
ful God. This horror occurred on the 21st day of May, 1781, 
and was witnessed by a multitude of people. Iron rings were 
forged upon the wrists and ankles of the young Inca, to which 
four chains were attached, and each chain was hitched to a 
restive and powerful horse. When the cruel arrangements 
were complete the master of ceremonies cracked his whip at 
the frantic animals, and each started in a different direction, 
tearing the body of Tupac Amaru into four pieces. 

Volumes have been written to describe the palaces, the 
temples and the fortresses of Cuzco. Prescott, a blind man, 
has written the most beautiful and accurate description that 
has ever appeared in print, and Prof. Adolph Bandelier, a 
famous archaeologist, is still employed in a thorough investiga- 
tion of secrets which science has not yet revealed. Professor 
Bandelier is engaged in exploring the ruins about Cuzco in the 



CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 257 

interest, of the New York Museum of Natural History, and 
the reports of his discoveries will no doubt be more valuable 
than any that have yet appeared, because he is working by 
the light of experience and an exact science. 

Cuzco stands at an elevation of 11,380 feet above the sea. 
It occupies one of the most beautiful sites ever selected for a 
city, which, according to tradition, was chosen by Manco 
Capac and Mama Ocla, those mysterious beings who called 
themselves the "Children of the Sun," and appeared about 
the seventh century after Christ to teach the arts and indus- 
tries of civilization to the savage Indians of the Andes, and 
founded a dynasty which grew in power and influence until it 
conquered nearly all that half of the continent of South 
America which lies west of the Andes. The climate of Cuzco 
is salubrious and healthful. Were it different, the accumulated 
filth of generations would make the city uninhabitable. There 
are no sewers, and all the offal from the houses is dumped into 
the streets. Within twenty miles down the valley, all the 
semi-tropical fruits and vegetables are produced, and although 
the soil in that vicinity has been cultivated for centuries, it 
still yields harvests of all the staples of the temperate zone. 
When Manco Capac laid out the city he divided it into four 
quarters by four roads leading to corresponding portions of 
the empire. Their direction was fixed by the configuration 
of the country, and they run from northeast to southwest, and 
from northwest to southeast, crossing in the central plaza of 
the old city. 

In one of these quarters, on a hill known as Sacsahuaman, 
the first Inca built his palace, which was surrounded by tem- 
ples, convents and fortifications erected for their protection. 
The nuns of St. Catilena now occupy the restored ruins of the 
palace of the Virgins of the Sun ; the friars of Santo Domingo 
occupy a magnificent and extensive monastery, rebuilt from 
the walls of the Temple of the Sun, which was perhaps the 
most extensive, imposing and gorgeous building in America. 
The accounts of its splendor and riches that have come down 
to us from those who destroyed it are almost beyond belief. 
They said it was 400 paces square, which would be about 1,200 



258 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

feet. Its high walls of finely dressed stone, enclosed courts, 
gardens, chapels, shrines and various other apartments for 
religious sacrifices and ceremonies. The cornices of the walls 
outside and in, the Spaniards say, were of solid gold, and at 
the eastern end in the great courtyard a massive plate of gold, 
representing the sun, spread from one wall to the other, 
which, according to the measurements of the court in which 
it is said to have been placed, must have been sixty feet in 
diameter. Before it, seated upon golden thrones and wearing 
the robes of their royal office were the embalmed and dessi- 
cated bodies of dead Incas ; Huayna Capac, the greatest of the 
Incas, being honored with the place beneath the center of the 
symbol. The inner walls of the temples were covered with 
gold plate, and showed a high degree of artistic skill on the 
part of the native goldsmiths; the garden, 600 feet long by 300 
feet broad, was filled with figures of men, animals, birds, 
reptiles and insects, of life size in the same precious metal. 
The walls of a dozen other temples and palaces, convents and 
fortresses still remain, and are utilized for modern structures, 
so that it is easy to define the outlines of the ancient city, and 
if the stories that its conquerors told are only half true they 
sheltered an accumulation of riches whose value is beyond 
computation. 

There is very little of interest to the modern traveler out- 
side these ruins, and the ecclesiastical edifices which the Span- 
iards erected upon them, and with the money plunder they 
contained. The market place, particularly on Sunday morn- 
ing, is attractive to those who are unfamiliar with the manners 
and customs of the Indians of the Andean basin, but they 
are a sullen, reticent race, and lack the dramatic and pictur- 
esque characteristics that make the Amayra Indians of Bolivia 
so entertaining. There are several Americans living in Cuzco, 
two protestant missionaries, a dentist, a miner or two, and 
the men who are building a stage road to connect with the 
railway. The antiquated architecture and the purity of the 
climate make Cuzco a fascinating field for the amateur pho- 
tographer, but few strangers are willing to spend the time 
and patience required to reach that isolated place. The hotel 



CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE. INCAS 259 

is very bad, as bad as any one can find in South America, 
which, is doubtless due to its limited patronage, but the pro- 
prietor endeavors to propitiate his guests by cordial atten- 
tions. 

The railway runs east-north from Juliaca 122 miles to a 
town called Sicuani. There a cart road begins which was 
built by Mr. Patrick Hawley, an enterprising Irish-American, 
and continues a distance of eighty-seven miles to within fifteen 
miles of Cuzco. He has recently imported from the States 
two comfortable and handsome Concord stages, which run 
twice a week, making a journey in two days. 

From the terminus of the present highway the traveler 
must ride into the City of the Sun on muleback over a horrible 
trail. But when the road is done this will be unnecessary, 
and the entire journey will be made by stage. Until Mr. 
Hawley undertook this enterprise no wheeled vehicle was ever 
able to enter the valley of Cuzco, and every article that came 
in and went out had to be carried on the back of a llama or a 
mule over a mountain trail that was almost impassable. 

The Incas had a system of highways which Dr. Tschudi, 
the famous Austrian archaeologist, declared "even in the exist- 
ing state of our knowledge, and with modern instruments 
of labor, would be deemed worthy of the most civilized nation 
now on the globe." "Of all the ancient monuments whose 
ruins invite our attention," he says, "there are none which 
by their astonishing character, their immense extent and 
the seemingly impossible labor which their construction 
demanded, impress us more profoundly than the royal roads 
which traversed the entire empire from north to south." 
Pedro Cieca de Leon, one of the earliest writers, compares 
them to those which Hannibal made over the Alps, and says 
"the caciques and princes caused a road to be built fifteen feet 
broad, on each side of which was a very strong wall more than 
a fathom in thickness, while the road was very clear and 
smooth and shaded by trees. ' ' Lopez de Gomarra, another of 
the conquistadores, writes that "the royal roads from the city 
of Cuzco were a very costly and noble work, cut in some places 
from the living rock and in others made of stone and lime, for 



> 2 6o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

indeed it was necessary to cut away the mountains and fill up 
the valleys in order to bring the road to a level. It was a 
work which, as all agree, exceeded the Pyramids of Egypt and 
the paved ways of the Romans, and, indeed, all other ancient 
works. These roads went in a direct line, without turning 
aside for hills or mountains, or even lakes. ' ' 

Pedro Cieca de Leon, writing in the seventh century, said : 
"The caciques and princes, by the Inca's command, caused a 
road to be made twenty-five feet broad, on each side of which 
was a very strong wall more than a fathom in thickness, while 
the road was perfectly clear and smooth, and shaded by trees ; 
and from these generally hung over the road branches loaded 
with fruit, while the trees were filled with parrots and various 
other birds. In each one of the valleys there were built grand 
and pricely lodging places for the Incas, and depositories for 
supplies of the army. Along this road the sidewalk extended 
from one place to another, except in those spots where, from 
the quantity of sand, the Indians were not able to lay solidly 
in cement ; and at such places, that the way might not be lost, 
they drove into the ground large trees properly fitted after the 
manner of beams, at regular intervals ; and thus they took care 
to make the road smooth and clear over the valleys. They 
renewed the walls whenever they became ruined or injured, 
and perpetual watch was kept to see if any large trees, of 
those in the sandy places, were overturned by the wind, in 
which case it was immediately replaced. ' ' 

Lopez de Gomarra says: "There were two royal roads from 
the city of Quito to that of Cuzco, very costly and noble 
works. The one over the mountains and the other across the 
plains, each extending more than a thousand miles. That 
which crossed the plains was walled on both sides, and was 
twenty-five feet broad, with ditches of water outside, and was 
planted with trees called nolle. That which was on the 
mountains was also twenty-five feet wide, cut in some places 
from the living rock, and in others made of stone and lime, 
for, indeed, it was necessary to cut away the rocks or fill up 
the valleys to bring the road to a level. It was a work, which, 
as all agree, exceeded the pyramids of Egypt and the paved 




Burial Tower of the Incas, near Cuzco. 



CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 261 

ways of the Romans, and, indeed, all other ancient works. 
Guaynacapac restored, enlarged and completed them ; but he 
did not build them entirely as some pretend, nor could they 
have been constructed in the whole time of his life. These 
roads went in a direct line, without turning aside for hills, 
mountains, or even lakes; and for resting places they had 
certaid grand palaces which were called "tambos," where the 
court and the royal army lodged. These were provided with 
arms, food, shoes and clothing for the troops. The Spaniards 
in their civil wars destroyed these roads, breaking them up in 
many places to impede the march of each other; and the 
Indians themselves demolished a part of them when they 
waged war, and layed siege to the cities of Cuzco and Lima, 
where the Spaniards were. ' ' 

But nearly all these wonderful highways were destroyed 
by the Spaniards, sometimes to prevent the Incas from fol- 
lowing them and often from sheer wantonness. The In- 
dians themselves demolished many of the embankments in 
order to impede the movements of the invaders, and time and 
neglect have done the rest, for the Spaniards never repair 
anything. Every monument, every public work they captured 
from the Incas was allowed to decay, and since their inde- 
pendence the Peruvians have been even more destructive and 
neglectful. When they entered the country the Spaniards 
found a civilization that was almost as advanced as their own, 
but so greedy and so avaricious were they that almost every 
temple and every palace was torn down in their search for 
treasure, and almost every stone was turned over in the hope 
that a jewel might be concealed under it. 

There is likely to be a Klondike excitement on a limited 
scale in this part of Peru if the San Domingo gold mine turns 
out to be as rich as expected. It is owned by the Inca Mining 
Company, an American corporation, composed chiefly of oil 
operators of Bradford, Pa. Mr. Charles P. Collins of that 
State is the largest stockholder, and the manager here is 
Chester W. Brown, of Cleveland. An enormous amount a. 
money has been spent in the development of the property, and 
the owners are confident that it will prove to be the most 



262 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

profitable gold mine ever discovered, surpassing even El 
Callao of Venezuela, the Treadwell of Alaska, and other 
famous deposits. 

During 1898 and 1899 the managers were able to take out 
large amounts of ore by the primitive processes of the Indians, 
and since their machinery has been in place the output has 
been increased nearly fourfold. Part of the ore is sent to 
Europe in bags, part is reduced on the ground, and the bars 
are shipped to the mint in Lima for coinage. The great draw- 
backs have been the inaccessibility of the location and the 
difficulty of getting labor. Manager Brown sent to California, 
Nevada, Arizona and Colorado for white American miners, 
as the Indians are not only inefficient and intractable, but will 
not work regularly. As it usually requires two or three 
days for the Indians to recover from the effects of a holiday, 
the managers came to the conclusion that they must import 
competent and intelligent labor. 

Furthermore, in the employment of natives they are entirely 
at the mercy of the local officials, who have organized a sort of 
padrone system among the Indians. When a miner, a hacien- 
dado, a railway manager or an employer of any kind wants a 
gang of men he is compelled to go to the prefect of the nearest 
town, who will furnish as many as are wanted at the rate of 
$1 a head per month as long as they are employed. He 
becomes responsible for their good behavior and agrees to 
make them work full hours, according to the "custumbre de 
la pais." Those words, which mean literally "the custom of 
the country," have a wide significance, to which the native 
employer is accustomed by experience, but it is exasperating 
to a man who has been accustomed to do business in North 
America. Furthermore, if the prefect is not well looked after 
he decides every dispute in favor of the Indians and gives 
them the benefit of every doubt. 

The natives in many respects resemble the colored people 
in our southern states. They have no idea of the value of 
money and work for small wages, an average of 60 cents a day 
in depreciated silver, but when they get a few dollars ahead 
they quit and loaf until it is expended. During this time they 




A Peruvian Caballito, Canoe of Straw. 



CUZCO, THE CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 263 

pretend to be sick, and the prefect usually accepts the excuse 
on the theory that it increases the prosperity of his town to 
have the Indians come in and spend their money for liquor. 

The San Domingo mine is situated near a little town that 
bears the appropriate name of Perdition, over the Cordilleras 
on the Atlantic slope of Peru, near the Bolivian boundary, and 
until recently it could only be reached by a trail 150 miles long 
through a trackless wilderness from Tirapata station on the 
Cuzep branch of the Southern Railway of Peru. 

Prospectors who desire to go into the San Domingo country 
must go down the west coast of South America as far as 
Mollendo, where they take the Southern Railroad for the 
interior. At the town of Juliaca they change cars for the 
Cuzco branch and leave the train at Tirapata, which is a little 
station 12,780 feet above the sea. There they can get a mule 
either by hire or purchase for the rest of the journey. The 
trail crosses the main range of the Andes at an elevation of 
18,000 feet, and descends rapidly into the timbered slope that 
conceals the head waters of the Amazon. For two years the 
Inca Mining Company had 400 men employed in building a 
cart road to the railway, so that the company has been able to 
haul in machinery for a twenty-stamp mill. Until the road 
was built everything was carried in and out on mule back, and 
when the Americans first bought the mine it could only be 
reached on foot. 

In addition to the stamp mill the company has a sawmill in 
opeiation, and has established quite a colony, including thirty 
or forty American miners. They now have a cattle ranch, a 
vegetable garden, and the little community has become self- 
supporting. 

The vein was exposed by a landslide several years ago, and 
was discovered by an Indian cattle herder, who brought sam- 
ples of the ore to his employer, a Mr. Velasco, and sold him 
the claim for ten cows. Velasco worked it in a feeble way for 
awhile, and then sold it for $250,000 to a California miner 
named Harbison, who happened to be traveling down this 
way as an agent for the Standard Oil Company. Harbison 
interested Collins and other friends at Bradford in the prop- 



264 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

erty, and sent down his nephew, Chester W. Brown, to take 
charge. 

There are plenty of mines in that country of all kinds of 
metals, but the lack of roads and transportation facilities, the 
difficulties in securing labor such as I have described, the 
exactions of the petty officials in the interior who are so far 
away from the headquarters of the government that they are 
practically independent and exercise a despotic power over the 
people, as well as the severity of the climate, compel northern 
miners to earn the full value of every dollar they get out. 
There are only two smelters in Peru. One of them is at the 
town of Casapalca on the Oroya road, and the other is at 
Maravillas, on the southern road, which are operated at a 
great expense, because coal costs from $20 to $25 gold a ton, 
and is brought from Chile, England and Australia. There are 
large coal deposits on the shores of Lake Titicaca, and during 
the war with Chile the steamboats and the railways of the 
interior were entirely dependent upon them for fuel. But they 
have never been developed on account of the indifference of 
the owners and the difficulties I have described. The coal is 
an excellent quality of bituminous, and improves as the shaft 
is deepened. 

Near the little station of Maravillas, which means "mar- 
velous," on the Southern Railway, there is a mountain of 
which the most extraordinary stories are told. It is claimed 
to be a solid mass of ores of all varieties indiscriminately 
mixed, and as one citizen declared, "all you have to do is to 
blindfold your eyes, turn around three times, "throw a little 
salt over your left shoulder, then begin to dig where your 
spade strikes and you can get any kind of ore you want — gold, 
silver, copper, lead, tin, antimony or anything else — and it lies 
right on the surface like gravel. ' ' The fact that this extraor- 
dinary mineralogical phenomenon has not been utilized, how- 
ever, rather detracts from the interest of the story. 



XVIII 
FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 

The eastern boundary of Lake Titicaca is formed by a 
colonnade of the loftiest mountains of the American continent, 
and the greatest continuous snow range in the world. The 
highest peaks exceed 20,000 feet — namely, Illimani, Mururata, 
Samaja, Huana-Potosi, Illampu, Sorata and Sunchuli. Illampu 
disputes with Aconcuagua the honor of being the highest peak 
in America, and, with the exception of Mount Everest, the 
highest in the world. The estimates and measurements of 
observers differ, and vary from 23,000 to 27,000 feet. But it 
is probably somewhere near 24,000. Illimani has an altitude 
almost as great, and the majestic Sajama reaches more than 
23,000. Nowhere else within human vision can such a bat- 
talion of monsters be seen, and the beauty of their outlines on 
a bright, sunny day is beyond verbal description. They 
remind one of a procession of mighty icebergs, moving with 
majestic dignity behind a screen that is formed by the inter- 
vening foothills. 

The slopes that lead to the lake are nearly all cultivated, 
and are cut up into little fields like a crazy quilt. As every- 
thing is reversed in this latitude, the northern slopes are the 
most fertile and the most productive, just as the northern sun 
is the warmest of the day, for you must remember that we are 
south of the equator. The water is intensely cold, and people 
who fall into it are certain to be paralyzed or seized with 
cramps because of the temperature unless they are imme- 
diately rescued. 

In the center the lake seems bottomless. Chief Engineer 
Creighton of the steamer Coya told me that they had dropped 
a lead 354 fathoms near the island of Titicaca without finding 

265 



266 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

a bottom, and that is i, 770 feet. Professor Agassiz made more 
than 500 soundings during his explorations, and came to the 
conclusion that the waters now occupy what was once the 
crater of a mighty volcano, which in the center is still open to 
the center of the earth. 

A curious phenomenon is that metal never rusts in the 
waters of Lake Titicaca. You can throw in a chain or an 
anchor or any article of ordinary iron and let it lie for weeks, 
and when you haul it up it will be as clean and bright as when 
it came from the foundry. And, what is stranger still, rust 
that has been formed upon metallic objects elsewhere will peel 
off when immersed in its waters. This is frequently noticed 
by railway and steamship men. Rusty car wheels and rails, 
and even machinery, can be brightened by soaking them in the 
waters of Lake Titicaca. 

The shallow bays and inlets of the lake show a film of ice 
almost every morning of the year, although at noonday the sun 
is very hot. The difference in temperature at 2 o'clock in the 
day and 2 at night is often 65 degrees, and will average 50 
degrees for the entire year. Nevertheless, there is no means 
of heating the houses, and the natives believe that artificial 
heat is unhealthy. The cold is not felt so much as in lower 
altitudes. 

Near the port of Puno, the metropolis of the lake, a com- 
monplace Spanish- American town, which has a large commerce 
in wool and ores, and is the terminus of the railway, lies the 
island Estaban, upon which Prof. James Orton, of the Univer- 
sity of Ohio, lies buried. Professor Orton was a distinguished 
naturalist and ethnologist, and spent several years in the 
exploration of the Andean ranges. He twice crossed the con- 
tinent from the Pacific to the waters of the Amazon, once 
through Ecuador and again through Peru, and the last years 
of his life were spent in archaeological investigations among 
the Inca ruins upon the shores of Lake Titicaca. He died of 
dysentery in a small sailboat which he had chartered to bring 
his collections for shipment at Puno, and his body was laid on 
Isle Estaban, because, being a protestant, he was denied 
interment in the regular burying grounds. He has the com- 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 267 

pany of three Englishmen and a German, who were also buried 
there for the same reason. 

Tacilla Island is the penal colony of Peru, and large bar- 
racks have been erected by the government for the entertain- 
ment of political prisoners. It is said that a number of 
gentlemen who now have the honor of holding office at Lima 
have spent more or less time at Tacilla while their political 
enemies were in power. 

Near by are two smaller islands which are peculiar because 
of the fact that one is covered with black gravel and bowlders, 
and the other with white gravel and bowlders. They lie so 
close together that it is possible for a man to throw a stone 
from one to the other, and their geological formation is exactly 
similar, but strangely enough not a white stone can be found 
upon one and not a black stone upon the other. 

The greatest interest, however, centers in the island of 
Titicaca, which is at once the Eden and the Nazareth of the 
Inca traditions. There fell the first rays of the sun to illum- 
inate and revivify the world after the deluge, and there 
appeared the Adam and the Eve of the Inca dynasty, the 
Children of the Sun, to redeem and regenerate the barbarians 
they found in this great region. It was somewhere about the 
seventh century of the Christian era that a man and a woman 
appeared one morning in the presence of the astonished 
natives on the island of Titicaca, and informed them that they 
had been sent by the great Creator, the father and ruler of all 
things, who inhabited the sun, to lead them into a better life, 
to teach them the knowledge of useful things, and improve 
their condition. Previous to the arrival of these missionaries 
the Peruvians were divided into rude and warlike tribes, igno- 
rant of all industry and culture, knowing no law and no morals. 

In some of the surrounding tribes in Bolivia and on the sea 
coast of Peru there was a certain degree of civilization, and 
the evidences of their progress are found in ruins that are 
scattered over the land, some of which must date back as 
far as the Christian era. Indeed, certain archaeologists who 
have spent years in exploration here assert that there were 
four distinct races and historic periods antedating the begin- 



268 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ning of the Inca dynasty, all of which reached an advanced 
state of civilization compared with that of the Indians of North 
America and the tribes that surrounded them. Indeed, in 
their architecture, their religion, their knowledge of agricul- 
ture, irrigation, roadmaking and other sciences, they equaled, 
if they did not surpass, the races of northern Europe at the 
same period. 

According to the story, when the Merciful Father, the Sun, 
sent his favorite children to redeem the Indians of the Andean 
basin, he gave them a rod of gold, which they were to drive 
into the ground wherever they stopped, and whenever they 
reached a spot where it entered the earth without pressure 
there they were to remain and erect a city, organize a govern- 
ment and establish a court. 

From the ridge of Huanancauri these Children of the Sun 
started northward, gathering the people around them in great 
multitudes to receive as gifts from heaven the counsel and 
instruction which they brought by order of the Supreme 
Being, their Father, until they reached the present location of 
the city of Cuzco, where the rod disappeared and they founded 
their capital. Manco Capac taught the men agriculture, 
industry and the useful arts. He established a social and 
political union among all the wandering tribes, convinced 
them of the blessings of peace, combined their forces, inspired 
them with ambition, and by adequate laws gave them a whole- 
some and enduring happiness and a prosperity which has 
never since been enjoyed in Peru. Mama Oclla taught the 
women the domestic arts and virtues, grace, chastity and cul- 
ture, and from her and Manco Capac sprung the dynasty of 
the Incas, which lasted nearly 1,000 years, and exercised 
authority equal that of the most powerful monarch in the 
world. To their autocracy was allied a tender affection for 
their subjects, a genuine anxiety for the good of the people, 
and an unselfish desire to enable the barbarous nations which 
they conquered to participate in the advantages of civilization. 

There are, of course, many theories to account for the 
miraculous appearance of these benefactors and redeemers of 
the Peruvian race, and the early explorers of Peru, like those 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 269 

of Mexico and Central America, were strongly of the opinion 
that Manco Capac, like Montezuma, was a Buddhist priest who 
somehow had crossed the Pacific, and by means of his superior 
learning and abilities was able to control the minds of the 
natives and elevate himself to political supremacy. The 
Scandinavians claimed that fair-haired Norsemen invaded and 
conquered the southern as well as the northern continent, and 
a learned rabbi, Manasseh Ben Israel, in a celebrated work, 
which was published in Amsterdam in 1650, made it very clear 
that Manco Capac was a Jew, whom Salmanezer, the king of 
Assyria, carried away captive from Jerusalem. According to 
Cabrera, a learned Moorish writer, the founders of the Peru- 
vian dynasty were Carthagenians who crossed the ocean in 
search of adventure, and a pious writer made an ingenious 
argument to prove that Manco Capac was identical with the 
apostle St. Thomas. Marco Polo declares that the first Inca 
of Peru was the son of Kublai Khan, and Baron von Humboldt 
joined the long procession of theorists to prove that the Peru- 
vians obtained their education from the Huns. 

There are remarkable analogies between the religion of the 
Incas and Buddhism, and in the interior of Thibet, where the 
purest Buddhism predominates, are usages which resemble the 
practices of the Amayra Indians in a most remarkable manner. 
Similar analogies are found in a comparative study of the 
Christian religion ; but whatever the origin of the Children of 
the Sun may have been it is certain that Manco Capac and his 
sister laid the foundations of a public happiness and a material 
prosperity of which for four centuries their descendants have 
been deprived. It is equally true that the invaders of the 
country disturbed a peace, destroyed a culture and overthrew 
a government whose aspirations and ideals were beyond the 
conception of Pizarro and the cut-throats that followed him 
from Spain. 

The island of Titicaca, famous as the birthplace of the old- 
est civilization in America, is now the property of Mr. Miguel 
Garces of Puno, who has a handsome hacienda there. A vil- 
lage of 700 or 800 Indians are living in mud huts, and raising 
wheat, barley and potatoes among the ruins of an age and a 



270 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

culture which the archaeologists of modern times have found 
a most fascinating problem. The island lies a mile or so from 
the main shore, from which it is separated by a bottomless 
channel. The nearest port is the little town of Calle. There 
is no communication except by balsas, the curious craft which 
are older than history and were used by the Incas, as they are 
used by the Indians to-day, for transportation. They are built 
of barley straw, tied together in bunches, and then bound by 
wisps in the shape of a catamaran. 

The body of the balsa is three or four feet in thickness. 
The ends are turned up in a rather artistic manner and orna- 
mented with considerable taste. They are very light, and one 
of the largest size can easily be lifted by two men, but they 
are so buoyant that two or three tons of freight can be easily 
transported by them, and as many passengers as can find 
room aboard. The Indians navigate them both with oars and 
with large sails made of woven straw in a curious and ingen- 
ious manner. On the coast of Ecuador and Peru the balsas 
are made of a porous timber almost as light as cork, but there 
is no timber of any kind in the Andean basin except a few 
stunted pines that grow in a most unaccountable manner 
among the rocks. 

A caballito is a small balsa or canoe made of straw, which 
is propelled by paddles, and the navigator, sitting astride his 
craft, sends it across the water with great skill and speed. 
These cabillitos were used in the days of the Inca empire for 
the transportation of couriers along the lake. The balsas are 
the best of lifeboats, because it is impossible to sink or even 
overturn them, although they are so light as to be affected by 
every motion of the water, and persons unaccustomed to using 
them become seasick in a moderate breeze. 

The Indians who inhabit the island are usually docile, 
industrious and are compelled to wring a scanty living from 
the unwilling soil, except upon the northern slope, where the 
wheat, barley and potatoes and a few vegetables feel the 
warmth of the noonday sun more than upon the other slopes. 
There is a little chapel, attended by a native priest, and the 
Indians are very assiduous in their religious duties, although 




Balsas, Lake Titicaca. 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 271 

they still retain many of the rites of their aboriginal re- 
ligion. 

The ruins of palaces and temples which formerly covered 
this sacred place have been the object of investigation by arch- 
aeologists for several centuries — ever since they were destroyed 
by the Spanish invaders — and much of the material used in 
their construction, which was sandstone cut in the neighboring 
mountains and brought across the land and water with infinite 
patience and labor, has been carried away for building pur- 
poses both upon the island and the mainland. It is remarkable 
that even one stone has been left upon another during the 360 
years since the Spanish conquistadores invaded the peaceful 
precincts of the place, for they destroyed everything they laid 
their hands upon, and during the last century archaeological 
explorers in searching out the secrets of the extinct civiliza- 
tion have made extensive excavations and overturned nearly 
everything that the Spaniards left. 

If we are to believe one-half of the reports that were made 
by the knights and chroniclers that accompanied Pizarro the 
temples and palaces were of an extensive and sumptuous 
character. To the Incas the island was a sacred place. It 
was the seat of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the residence of 
the exalted prelates and priests, who spent their lives in 
worship and in the observance of ceremonials which have been 
described in the most elaborate manner by early Spanish 
writers. The temples and palaces and monasteries were built 
of carved stone. The quarries from which it came and the 
method by which it was brought are still unknown, although 
scientific research has demonstrated that the Incas had no 
means of transportation on land except the llama, and none 
upon the water except the balsa. It is believed, however, 
that the material for their buildings was moved from the quar- 
ries to the shores of the lake upon rollers and there trans- 
ferred to the primitive boats, by which it was carried across 
the channel, and then transported up the steep hillsides to the 
central summits of the island by manual labor, for the Span- 
iards learned that thousands of Indians were detailed annually 
for employment upon the public works of the government. 



272 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

When the Spaniards came these buildings were filled with 
valuable accumulations of gold and silver for both ornamental 
and useful purposes. The walls were covered with beaten 
sheets of gold, and the altars of the idols were adorned with 
objects and vessels of the same metals ingeniously hammered 
into shapes by the primitive processes of that period. Tapes- 
tries woven of vicuna wool in unique and fanciful designs 
added beauty to the interiors, and upon the floors were spread 
the skins of wild beasts found in the forests upon the eastern 
slopes of the Andes. Millions of dollars' worth of treasure 
was carried away by the invaders, who after a few months left 
the splendid edifices roofless and dismantled. 

The emperor, or the Inca, as he was called, is supposed to 
have spent a certain portion of each year in a palace that was 
adorned and reserved for his use, and the remains that still 
exist indicate the extent and the grandeur of the buildings he 
occupied, although the scientists say that viewed externally 
they did not present as imposing an aspect nor show so high a 
degree of architectural skill as those of Yucatan. The walls 
were admirable for the skill of their construction, but they 
lacked columns, cornices and other architectural embellish- 
ments which are found in similar structures in Central Amer- 
ica. The internal arrangements offer a greater complication 
of detail and more interest. There were several large salons 
that were probably used as audience chambers by the mon- 
archs and the priests and for purposes of courtly ceremonials 
and religious worship, but most of them had but one door, 
opening into the courts that surrounded them. The walls 
were often carved with hieroglyphics commemorating events 
in the history of the nation, which were admirably executed, 
and some of them have been deciphered by modern skill. It 
is asserted that the massive walls of these apartments, the 
ceilings and even the floors, were covered with plates of gold, 
which was the principal cause of their destruction. In others 
the floors were adorned with pavements of marble of different 
colors, like moasic work, and in the niches the Spaniards found 
statues of gold and silver representing gods and all sorts of 
animals and insects. 



k 



^ 
k 




FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 273 

The monasteries were also large edifices containing similar 
apartments and innumerable small rooms, which were doubt- 
less occupied by the priests and their attendants, and some of 
them were spacious enough to furnish accommodations for 
1,000 persons. 

Among the best preserved of the ruins are the royal baths, 
which were as sumptuous as those of Italy or Greece at a sim- 
ilar period, and their exposure has suggested that there must 
have been a change in the climate since the time of the Incas, 
or else the aborigines were a much more enduring race than 
their posterity. The baths were built of carved marble. The 
bottoms were carefully covered with a mixture of small stones 
and a species of cement, and the water was received through 
golden figures of animals, lions, tigers, eagles, condors or 
snakes, either carved in marble or wrought in gold or silver, 
which threw the water from their mouths from pipes of metal 
or stone. The baths, which lie upon the open hillside, are 
surrounded by ruins of small apartments, which seem to have 
been used as dressing rooms, and were also ornamented with 
statues of stone and metal. 

Among the golden ornaments carried away by the Span- 
iards were hollow statues representing animals, birds, trees 
and bushes of natural size, imitations of sacks, baskets and 
sticks of gold that were in the form of billets of wood col- 
lected for burning. Both the baths and the palaces were 
surrounded by gardens, in which were growing trees and 
plants that were evidently brought from the forests of lower 
latitudes. 

Upon the island of Coati, which is six miles distant from 
Titicaca, was the harem of the Inca, where the remains of the 
buildings are in a much better state of preservation than those 
upon the island of Titicaca, and the principal walls remain 
almost intact. This island was dedicated to the moon, and in 
the convent were many young women selected for their beauty 
and their lineage for concubines of the monarch by a method 
similar to that formerly in vogue in Japan, and which still 
exists in China. 

Under the direction of competent superiors these wives of 



274 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the monarch were taught the sacred duties of their office. 
Their occupations were spinning and weaving the garments of 
the Incas from the finest vicuna wool, in brilliant colors, and 
embroidering them with gold and precious stones. They 
were also obliged to weave the garments and vestments worn 
by the priests in the religious ceremonials, and also to prepare 
the chicha and the sacred bread of corn, called "zaucus," for 
the monarch and his court. 

The palace of the harem was also richly marbled and 
adorned with as much taste and luxury as that upon the other 
island, and the Inca is said to have conferred honors and 
privileges upon these cloistered women which had the honor 
of attending his royal chamber until they reached the age of 
retirement, when they were permitted to return to their homes 
to spend the remainder of their lives in luxury at the expense 
of the government. The moon was considered the sister and 
the wife of the sun, and hence Coati was dedicated to its honor. 
The moon, however, was not worshiped like the sun, although 
it was considered the protecting deity of women in child- 
birth. 

Like the oriental monarchs, the Inca had an unlimited 
number of concubines, but only one legitimate wife, or 
empress, who was called "coya," and was always one of his 
sisters. This concentration of the blood was intended to 
impress a distinction of physiognomy upon the royal family. 
The throne belonged to the eldest son of the coya, and is said 
to have passed without interruption from father to son during 
the entire period in which the Inca dynasty flourished. The 
children of the concubines were educated for the priesthood 
and became officers of the royal household, the highest nobility 
of the kingdom. It is said that at the [time of the Spanish 
invasion the harem at Coati contained 700 women, each of 
whom had several servants, and Garcilasso, a nephew of the 
last of the Incas, who was educated in Spain and wrote a 
remarkable volume concerning the court of his uncle, declared 
that some of the Incas left more than 300 children. At the 
time of the Spanish invasion the court of Atahualpa and his 
brother, Huascar, who divided authority with him by the 




Adolp F. Bandelier, Archeologist. 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 275 

decree of their father, contained more than 8,000 persons of 
royal blood. 

The island of Coati, which is much smaller than Titicaca, 
is now a sheep farm inhabited by a single family. Within the 
last few years a mine of coal has been discovered upon it. It 
is an inferior quality of bituminous coal, but has been used for 
steaming purposes, and during the war between Chile and 
Peru, when the ports were blockaded and no other fuel was 
available, it was the only fuel available for the steamers upon 
the lake. 

Mr. Adolph Bandelier, the famous Swiss archaeologist, 
whose work in Mexico and among the Pueblo Indians in the 
southwestern part of the United States has given him a world- 
wide reputation, spent several months upon the islands of 
Titicaca and Coati, making excavations among the ruins and 
attempting to ascertain from the Indians residing there the 
traditions of their race. At first he was kindly received, hav- 
ing the indorsement of Mr. Garces, the owner, but he found 
after a time that the Indians regarded his work with great 
jealousy and suspicion, and before long showed an active 
hostility, which he believed to be due to their reluctance to 
permit the ruins and the soil, which to their eyes was sancti- 
fied by so many traditions and associations, to be disturbed by 
a foreigner. 

It was also very difficult for him to induce the natives to 
discuss the traditions of their race, or to explain the signifi- 
cance of the rites and ceremonials which they often practiced. 
During the latter part of his stay his life was so frequently 
threatened that he was compelled to abandon his work. The 
Indians would not dig in the ruins any longer and would not 
permit him to do so, and for several days he was compelled 
to remain in a hut that had been assigned for his accommoda- 
tion, subsiting entirely upon tea, chocolate and a few provi- 
sions which he had fortunately stored away for an emergency. 

He had no means of escape or communication with the 
outer world, and his situation was becoming desperate when 
he was rescued by a priest from the mainland, who happened 
to visit the islands in the performance of his parochial duties^ 



276 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Fortunately, however, during several months of labor Mr. 
Bandalier was able to make large and important archaeological 
collections, which were rescued from the Indians by the 
priests of the neighboring town of Cococabana and are now 
safely deposited in the Museum of Natural History at New 
York. 

Mr. Bandelier's reports will deny many popular theories 
concerning the aborigines and prehistoric conditions of Peru, 
and will doubtless furnish material for interesting contro- 
versies in the scientific world. He does not accept, but 
contradicts the testimony of the early explorers upon most 
important points. For example, he acquits the Spanish con- 
quuistadores of the awful accusation under which they have 
been resting for three centuries, and declares that the alleged 
depopulation of Peru is a myth, for it did not occur after the 
so-called conquest, nor as a result of the conquest itself. 
Robertson in his history, the pious Las Casas, who was known 
as the apostle of the Indians, and other writers upon early 
events in America caused perpetual horror in the civilized 
world by their statements concerning the slaughter of the 
innocents who occupied these mountains, and which were 
based upon the unoccupied habitations and the ruins that 
extend through the valleys, the mountains and along the 
shore of the sea. Mr. Bandelier declares that this was a 
serious mistake, and that the ruins were occupied by suc- 
cessive and not contemporaneous communities. At the time of 
the arrival of the Spaniards he asserts that the most extensive 
settlements along the Peruvian coast were either completely 
or at most partially abandoned ; that the site of the great city 
of Cajamarquilla was not only deserted but even forgotten 
by the natives at the time of the invasion ; that Pachacamac 
was half in ruins in 1532, and that the enormous Chimu nation 
on the arrival of Pizarro had dwindled to a single modest 
village, at a site called Manische, a mile or so distant from the 
ruins near Truxillo, which are the most extensive in South 
America. Mr. Bandelier attributes the disappearance of this 
population to constant warfare between the Incas in the 
mountains and the inhabitants of the valleys on the coast. 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 277 

One tribe, he says, slaughtered another and wrecked its 
abodes, which were never reoccupied. 

The publication of reports with such iconoclastic tenden- 
cies is likely to create a sensation in the scientific world, for 
Mr. Bandelier's opinions and conclusions differ so widely from 
those which have been advanced until this time by genera- 
tions of explorers, and have been almost universally accepted. 
Nevertheless, his fame as a scientist and his reputation for 
accuracy, as well as the thorough manner in which he has con- 
ducted his investigations, give him the right to be heard. 

During all his explorations Mr. Bandelier has been accom- 
panied by his wife, a beautiful young Swiss woman whom he 
married shortly after his arrival in Peru. She has been his 
constant companion and collaborator, and he generously attri- 
butes to her the greater part of his success. Her beauty and 
tact have enabled her to secure the confidence of the Indians 
where no ordinary woman would have been able to do so, and 
her courage and endurance during the dangers and hardships 
they have encountered have been phenomenal. 

I asked Professor Bandelier who was Manco Capac, the 
mysterious founder of the Inca dynasty. 

"He was not a Hindu Brahmin, nor a Chinese mandarin, 
nor a wandering Jew, nor a Phoenician," he replied. "There 
is no reason to believe that he came from outside the Andean 
basin, although it is impossible to determine his origin accur- 
ately. It is more than probable, however, that he was some 
strong character who emerged from the masses and asserted 
his individuality. By reason of his superior ability and genius 
he changed chaos into order and redeemed his race, who ideal- 
ized him, and either voluntarily or involuntarily endowed him 
with divine attributes. He claimed to be the offspring of the 
Sun, the great creator — the symbol as well as the source of life 
and light and happiness. Every race has a redeemer, or a 
founder, whose origin and existence is more or less involved 
in mystery — the Thor of the Norsemen, Mahomet, Zoroaster, 
Buddha, Confucius, Romulus and Remus, Adam, Moses and 
Christ. Manco Capac in the traditions of the Incas was a 
similar character." 



278 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

When the Spanish invaders entered this country they won- 
dered at the manner in which their movements were antici- 
pated by the natives. Every act appeared to be instantly 
communicated over the entire empire almost as swiftly as if 
sent by telegraph. After a few months they discovered that 
there was an organization of runners who carried the news 
with amazing speed over the snow-covered mountains and 
across the scorching sands. These were known as chaquis, and 
were selected by reason of their physical qualifications and 
trained for speed and endurance. When they became incapac- 
itated by age or accident less arduous duties were given them 
in the army or about the court. 

As the Incas had no written language their messages were 
always oral, so the memories as well as the muscles of the 
chaquis were trained. Sometimes the Inca communicated with 
his subordinates in other parts of the country by signs — a ring, 
a piece of molded clay or a leaf might be transmitted — which 
meant nothing to the man who bore it or to the people who 
saw it in his hands, but was very portentious to him for whom 
it was intended. As proof of the speed of the chaquis it is 
said that the royal table at Cuzco was often served with fresh 
fish caught in the sea fifty or sixty hours previous — a distance 
that now requires from six to ten days to travel by railways 
and stage. Along the highways and the mountain trails, at 
frequent intervals, were established station houses, usually 
erected upon hillocks and other points of observation from 
which the approach of messengers could be detected. As one 
arrived, heated and breathless, a fresh chaqui would be ready 
to receive the message and carry it to the next station without 
an instant's delay. 

The chaquis still exist, but they are no longer organized 
and there is little use for them. In time of war they are 
useful, as they have many of the instincts and much of the 
skill of scouts, and being familiar with the byways as well as 
the highways are able to slip through the lines of the enemy 
without danger. Some years ago I saw a chaqui named 
Qualnapambo (bird-chaser), who was very swift of foot and 
almost incapable of fatigue. He had been employed for sev- 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 279 

eral years by General Caceras, then president of Peru, and had 
carried a message 250 miles without rest or sleep through the 
enemy's country, and had returned with the answer within a 
week. 

The chaqui never carries food with him, but depends 
entirely upon the coca leaf ; nor are his movements impeded 
by clothing. He goes as nearly naked as possible, but carries 
a poncho and paints his legs with a vegetable dye as a protec- 
tion against poisonous vines and the bites of insects. 

The little port of Chillilaya handles more than one-third of 
the entire foreign commerce of Bolivia. It lies at the southern 
extremity of Lake Titicaca, and is reached by a weekly 
steamer from Puna, the terminus of the southern railway of 
Peru. La Paz, the actual capital and commercial metropolis 
of Bolivia, is forty-five miles across the plains. The road is 
almost level the entire distance, and lies at an elevation of 
12,500 feet above the sea. There is a weekly stagecoach, a 
lumbering vehicle drawn by eight mules and driven by a Jehu 
whose language and gyrations are calculated to occasion great 
alarm among nervous people who do not know that mule driv- 
ers in South America always act that way. Beside his long 
whip, which is handled with great skill and accuracy, he car- 
ries a bag full of small stones as an auxiliary, and shies them 
at the leaders with an aim that David himself could not have 
excelled. Indeed, he can touch the tip of the ear of the leader 
of his eight mule team nine times out of ten with a pebble not 
bigger than a pigeon's egg t and can hit any other part of the 
body of any other beast in the team with unerring skill. Pas- 
sengers who are in a hurry to reach La Paz prefer to hire a 
private "coach," as they call it, and are furnished with a team 
of four mules and a vehicle similar to those known as democrat 
wagons in the United States. It is protected by a canvas 
cover, but the curtains are always loose, so that they go flap- 
ping around in the air in a most reprehensible manner. 
Nobody seems to know when or where these "coaches" were 
constructed, but the material is strong and the workmanship 
more than usually good, or they could not endure the hard 
usage that is assigned them. 



280 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The road is the best I have seen in South America, but for 
the greater part of the way is covered with bowlders that vary- 
in size from a baseball to a washtub, round and smooth, and 
they are strewn from one end of the journey to the other. 
There are several water courses across the great plateau, 
which are filled with similar bowlders many layers thick — 
indeed, so deep that it would be difficult to find the bottom. 
It seems as if all the bowlders in the world had been collected 
and dropped along that roadway. Mr. Bandelier says they were 
dropped by the glaciers that passed over this plain ages ago, 
and the liberality with which they were distributed is com- 
mendable. The entire surface of the earth is strewn with, 
them. The patient natives have gathered them into piles as 
big as hay stacks, and in long windrows, and have made fences 
of them so that they can cultivate the soil underneath, but a 
large share have been thrown into the road, and our good- 
humored "cochero" hustles his mules over them with a speed 
that would have made Jehu blush for mortification ; and the 
rougher the road the faster he drives. Whenever something 
breaks about the wagon he gets down and ties it up with a 
string or a strap, and then resumes his reckless career. There 
is no use in trying to stop him. The lean and hungry-looking 
animals that compose his team are accustomed to gallop the 
entire distance and would not understand what he meant if he 
tried to moderate their speed, so all the passengers can do is 
to cling to the iron rods that support the canopy of the wagon 
and shut their eyes against any possible catastrophe. The 
teams are changed twice during the journey at haciendas of 
adobe that stand by the roadside, surrounded by high adobe 
wails and hugh stacks of barley straw, and refreshments are 
served to the passengers as ordered. 

Chillilaya is a little town of low mud houses on the brink of 
the lake, with a panorama of majestic snow-clad mountains 
around it. There is no more imposing scenery in the world. 
At least seven peaks exceeding 20,000 feet in height, stand in 
review, with sierras of lesser altitude between them, and fur- 
nish an impassable barrier between this great plateau and the 
more fertile slopes that lead to the headwaters of the Amazon. 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 



2S1 



An enormous amount of business is done at Chillalaya. 
The steamers on Lake Titicaca land their cargoes of merchan- 
dise upon a long stone pier, from which it is carried on tiny 
cars to a custom house, where the captain of the port, with a 
gorgeous uniform and autocratic ways, directs the energy of 
hundreds of picturesque Indians, with long hair, quaint hats 
and the ever-present ponchos. He is a person of great impor- 
tance, this captain of the port, for the revenues of the republic 
largely depend upon his vigilance. He examined our ordinary 
luggage with haughty indifference, but laid the typewriter, the 
banjo and the kodak to one side as objects of doubtful pro- 
priety, and it took him a long time to determine whether he 
should impose a heavy duty upon them or even admit them at 
all. The kodak he was evidently acquainted with, but showed 
great interest when its purpose and method of manipulation 
were explained to him. The typewriter was the source of 
wonder, not only to him, but to all the natives, who suspended 
business for a time and stared at it with amazement, as if it 
were some infernal machine which we were trying to introduce 
with evil designs into the country; but the banjo was regarded 
with even greater suspicion, for its like was never seen in 
Chillilaya before. Finally, with many misgivings, this impor- 
tant official accepted the explanation and guaranty of Mr. 
Creighton, the Scotch engineer of the steamer Coya, and 
allowed us to place the three mysterious articles in the coach 
that was ready to receive us. 

Large troops of mules, burros and llamas were standing 
about the area in front of the custom house awaiting their 
burdens, for nearly all the commerce between Chillilaya and 
the interior is conducted by that means. There aie a few 
huge carts drawn by teams of six and eight mules passing to 
and fro between Chillilaya and La Paz, which carry lumber, 
machinery and other heavy freight. But there are no railtoads 
and few wagon roads in the interior, the total length of all the 
highways that can accommodate a carriage in the entire repub- 
lic being 720 miles. These roads connect the principal cities 
of La Paz, Oruru, Cochabamba, Sucre and Potosi. They were 
constructed by the government and are maintained in the 



282 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

same way as the country roads in the United States. All 
male citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 are obliged to 
work upon the roads one day in each six months, or pay in lieu 
thereof 50 cents in silver in order that a substitute may be 
employed. Thus the few highways are kept in passable condi- 
tion, and communication by stage and wagon between the 
principal cities in the great Andean basin is maintained ; but 
when one leaves that plateau one is compelled to depend 
entirely upon the use of pack animals, mules, donkeys and 
llamas, which toil up and down narrow and tortuous trails and 
wend their way through the deep gorges, over rocky passes 
and around the sharp and precipitous angles of the mountains, 
bearing their burdens of ore, coca, coffee, wool and other 
natural products to the commercial markets, where they are 
exchanged for flour, dry goods, alcohol and other imported 
merchandise. 

Like the rest of the great plateau which lies between the 
two ranges of the Andes, the territory from Lake Titicaca and 
La Paz is divided into a few enormous haciendas or farms, 
which are dotted with groups of mud huts that are occupied 
by the tenants who till the ground and herd the sheep and 
cattle, and their ancestors have occupied the same miserable 
quarters for generations and even centuries. The system of 
farming in Bolivia is not unlike that of Ireland, and one is 
constantly reminded of the emerald isle when traveling 
through this country, but in Bolivia the tenants pay no rent. 
Each has a little patch of ground which he cultivates, as his 
ancestors have done, upon shares. The landlord furnishes 
him a team of mules or oxen and the primitive implements to 
which he is accustomed, and advances him a certain amount of 
supplies from the store at headquarters, which are charged 
against him, and when he brings in his harvest he is credited 
with the value of his share. Or, if he is a shepherd, he 
receives as compensation for his labor in attending the flocks 
a certain proportion of the wool and a given number of lambs, 
and once a year there is a settlement at headquarters, in 
which he usually comes out behind. He is always in debt to 
the patron, as his employer is called, and the laws of the 




Bolivian Farmers. 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 285 

country require him to live in a state of peonage and serve 
that master until the account is settled. Sometimes he wan- 
ders from his home to a different part of the country, and may 
remain away for months or years, but his family seldom goes 
with him, and the wife and sons and daughters continue to 
cultivate the little patch of ground and look after the little 
herd of sheep or cattle without his assistance. The patron 
may send for him and have him brought back by the police or 
military authorities, and the expense of his capture and return 
are charged against him on the books at the hacienda. But 
this seldom happens. The relations between landlords and 
tenants are similar to those of the old feudal times in Europe. 
The former exercise a patriarchal authority over the Indians 
that live upon his lands, and they serve him with loyalty as 
long as he allows them a measure of independence. The 
haciendas seldom change hands. The property is inherited by 
one generation from another, and the customs of the country 
are so fixed and rigid that they are seldom violated either by 
the employers or the employed. 

The mud huts of the tenants are usually found in little 
groups or villages, and occasionally among them you see a 
little chapel, which is attended by a padre, who exercises an 
influence among his parishioners even greater than that of 
the haciendado. In addition to his spiritual ministrations the 
cure is expected to maintain a school for the children of the 
parish, but in most cases his duties in this respect are purely 
theoretical, and the Indians remain untaught. 

The methods of farming are primitive and the implements 
are rude. The soil is plowed with a crooked stick with one 
handle, drawn by a pair of bullocks, yoked by lashing a piece 
of wood behind their horns. The clods are broken by hand, 
usually by women and children, who follow the plowman, and 
the ground is harrowed by dragging a heavy slab or log over 
it. It is then cut into deep furrows, which serve the double 
purpose of drilling in the grain and irrigating the growing 
crop. 

On this high plain little is raised but barley, wheat, corn 
and potatoes, and often the season is so short and cold that the 



284 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

wheat does not come to maturity. When the grain is har- 
vested it is thrashed by driving cattle over it. 

The flocks and herds are a larger and more certain source 
of revenue than the soil. The sheep and alpacas seem to find 
sufficient nourishment in the scanty grass that grows upon 
these cold plateaus, for they are large of bone, well covered 
with flesh, and carry heavy fleeces. It is claimed that the 
higher the altitude and the colder the climate, up to a certain 
limit, the heavier the fleece, and sheep and alpacas will feed 
almost to the snow line, which in this latitude is 15,000 feet. 
Most of the herds are attended by women and children, as in 
the mountains of Peru, and scattered over the grazing grounds 
are rude shelters made of mud or brush to protect them from 
the bitter wind. The women and even the little girls in the 
fields all carry bunches of carded wool, which they are contin- 
ually spinning into yarn with a curious wooden implement 
called a "rucca. " Their hands are never idle. The rucca is 
a cylinder or spool of wood about eight inches long. One end 
tapers to a point, at which there is a little notch that holds the 
thread. They draw out the fibers from the lump of wool with 
their fingers to a proper thickness, and then with a deft twist 
whirl the rucca suspended in the air until the fibers are wound 
into a compact string. Then they wind it upon the spool, 
catch it in the notch and continue until the spool is filled. 

This land has been cultivated for unnumbered centuries. 
During the Inca dynasty the territory was divided into three 
equal parts. One belonged to the Deity, another to the Inca, 
and the third to the people, and under an autocratic govern- 
ment a system of socialism was practiced with a fraternal 
equality and a peaceful prosperity that was never surpassed in 
any part of the world. Each adult was required to spend one- 
third of his time in labor for the Deity, one-third for the king, 
and the remainder for his own benefit, and the flocks were 
divided and cared for in a similar manner. The lands of the 
aged and the infirm and those of soldiers w^o were engaged in 
active service for the king were cultivated by their neighbors. 
Those who were in need of seed or implements were provided 
from the royal depositories. While human selfishness has 



FROM LAKE TITICACA TO LA PAZ 285 

prevailed from the entrance of the serpent into Eden, it is 
asserted by the early writers that under the authority of the 
Incas the people of this region looked after the interests of 
each other with as much zeal as they devoted to their own 
affairs. The oldest son in every family was obliged to follow 
the profession of his father, the younger sons were permitted 
to engage in other business, to enter the army and to emigrate 
to other provinces, but not until the family were secure from 
poverty and the elder brother had demonstrated his ability to 
care for them. When the Spaniards invaded the country they 
seized all the land, divided it among themselves and made 
slaves of the people. 

As the journey to La Paz approaches its end the traveler 
enjoys a startling surprise. The highway across the plateau 
leads to the brink of a vast canyon 1, 100 feet deep, whose walls 
are almost perpendicular, and which in many respects resem- 
bles the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. At the foot of this 
mighty gorge lies the capital of Bolivia, and the first glance 
shows a wide expanse of red tiled roofs, occasionally broken 
by a bunch of foliage or a group of graceful spires. In the 
center of the city is a river that comes tumbling down from 
the mountains and is crossed by a series of picturesque bridges 
of massive masonry centuries old. This river, in the native 
Aymara language, is called Chuquiapa, meaning the river of 
gold, and the peculiar location of La Paz at the bottom of the 
canyon is due to the placer mines which were worked with great 
profit during the early occupation of the Spaniards. The 
gold in the river in the immediate neighborhood of the city 
was exhausted 3 r ears ago, but the washings are still carried on 
in the surrounding mountains. Within a league of La Paz 
only a few years ago a nugget worth $5,000 was picked up in 
the bed of the stream, and is owned by Senor Matta, who was 
then the minister of Chile. In the seventeenth century an 
Indian who was woiking in the stream in the very center of 
the city found a nugget that sold for $11,269. Occasionally in 
these day's small chunks of metal are still picked up. 

But the city of La Paz has long since ceased to be a mining 
town, and is now the political and commercial center of 



286 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Bolivia. A narrow roadway, carved in the side of the preci- 
pice, leads from the plateau to the bottom of the canyon, and 
our driver, after looking his wagon carefully over to see that 
everything was tight, whipped up his mules and started down 
the serpentine path with a speed that made the passengers 
feel very uneasy, and created a sensation among the people 
that live along the roadway, who ran out of their houses to 
witness the spectacle. This gratified the pride of Jehu, who 
cracked his whip and yelled at his mules with a becoming 
sense of his importance. Although you could almost drop a 
stone from the rim of the canyon upon the roofs of the houses 
1,100 feet below, the roadway is three miles long. 

There ought to be a railway between La Paz and Lake 
Titicaca. Several surveys have been made, and the only 
reason the track has not been laid is the poverty and insecurity 
of the government. Every time a new president comes into 
power the scheme is revived, and just now, since the conserv- 
ative party was overthrown and the liberals have come into 
power, an English engineer — Mr. Satchell — has made his 
appearance in La Paz for the purpose of revising the surveys 
and renewing the efforts to carry out the enterprise. 



XIX 

THE CITY OF LA PAZ 

Rome, you know, sat upon seven hills, and if that is an 
advantage La Paz is far and away more notable than the 
Eternal city, for it covers forty hills and hollows. It is diffi- 
cult to count them. Two or three of the main streets, which 
lie along the ridges, are reasonably level and wide enough to 
accommodate the traffic and the trade of an active population 
numbering 60,000 or 70,000 — there has never been a reliable 
census. They are lined with fine houses, built of heavy walls 
of stone or adobe, and painted in gaudy colors — blue, green, 
purple, and orange — and often embellished with designs in 
other tints that are very much admired by the Bolivians, who 
love gay colors and music and motion. But most of the streets 
are as narrow and as steep as stairways. They are without 
sidewalks, except the plaza and the principal trading streets, 
and the pavements are made of small cobblestones, with the 
sharp ends up, so as to lessen the danger of slipping in damp 
weather. While this precaution is entirely necessary to the 
welfare of men and women, as well as beasts, it has its disad- 
vantages so far as the comfort of tender feet and the wear of 
sole leather are concerned. To a person afflicted with corns 
La Paz is a purgatory, and one can wear out a pair of shoes 
there quicker than in any other place I know. 

There are only two carriages in town. One belongs to the 
archbishop, and his eminence is hauled about by three horses 
because his ecclesiastical pediments are afflicted with the 
gout. The other carriage is the property of the government, 
and is one of the perquisites that pertains to the presidential 
power. It is an ordinary landau imported from Paris in 
pieces and put together by local talent, and a native artist has 
painted upon the panels of the doors a brilliant reproduction 

287 



288 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

of the coat of arms of the republic about a foot square in the 
national colors — green, yellow and red. This is greatly 
admired by the populace, who see the carriage only occasion- 
ally — on state occasions, when it is drawn by four big black 
horses wearing harness heavily mounted with silver and deco- 
rated with rosettes, tassels and streamers of the national colors. 

Everybody else goes on horseback, and the equestrian art 
has reached a high degree of cultivation among both men and 
women. The horses are trained to comfortable gaits, and the 
trappings of a cabellero usually indicate his wealth or social 
position. The bridle and reins are braided in a most ingen- 
ious manner of strips of white kid. The saddle is an example 
of embossed and stamped leather superior to anything we ever 
see in the States, although you often find equal and even 
superior workmanship in Mexico, where the art was inherited 
from the leather workers of Cordova, in Spain. The stirrups 
attached to the saddle of a Bolivian cabellero may be carved 
wood or brass, in the shape of slippers, or even silver orna- 
mented with beautiful designs in repousse\ His spurs are 
enormous wheels of silver, often three inches in diameter. 
The saddle blanket is a handsome piece of alpaca hide, with 
long fleeces of wool carefully combed out and curled. The 
rider always wears a poncho, that convenient and comfortable 
garment which serves as an overcoat and an umbrella, a 
duster, a mackintosh, a blanket, and, like charity, covers any 
defects in the wearer's wardrobe. 

There are several low oxcarts in La Paz engaged in hauling 
heavy merchandise, but they stick to the level streets which 
lie along the ridges or work up the steep inclines as best they 
can. Most of the transportation is done on the backs of burros 
and llamas, and you can see droves of them from every street 
corner. 

There is only one street-car line in the city, and that does 
not carry passengers, but was laid out twenty-five or thirty 
years ago for the purpose of bringing stone from a quarry up 
the canyon to the cathedral that for half a century has been in 
course of construction in the plaza. The low flatcars laden 
with stone are hauled by mules and attended by squads of 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 289 

Indians. When they reach an up-grade the peons take hold 
and push, and when they reach a down-grade they hop on and 
ride. 

The cathedral, which adjoins the government "palace," 
where the president resides and the heads of the executive 
departments have their offices, is an enormous structure, big 
enough for a town ten times the size of La Paz, and it will be 
very imposing if it is ever finished. The walls, which are 
eight or ten feet thick, are veneered with handsomely dressed 
stone, and some of the carving is artistic. But, although work 
has been in progress for fifty years, they are not more than 
thirty feet high, and at the present rate it will require several 
centuries for completion. Besides the money collected by the 
clergy throughout the republic, the government has contrib- 
uted $50,000 a year to the construction fund on the theory that 
the cathedral is a state institution, but there is some doubt 
whether the liberal party, which has recently come into power 
through a revolution, will continue the subsidy. One of the 
principal planks in the liberal platform is the separation of 
church and state, and forbids the interference of the clergy 
in politics. 

There are no notable buildings in La Paz. Churches are 
numerous but commonplace. There are several big monas- 
teries and convents that cover blocks of ground. The Carmel- 
ite nuns, numbering several hundred, are living in a seclusion 
that has never been violated, although the revolutionary out- 
breaks that have been frequent do not usually respect church 
property. This particular nunnery is said to be the largest and 
the most rigid in its restrictions of any in America, or perhaps 
in the world. The inmates are chiefly from the upper classes 
of Bolivia, and those who pass its portals never emerge again 
until their lifeless dust is conveyed by night to a forlorn little 
cemetery, shaded by rows of eucalyptus trees, that lies upon a 
neighboring hillside. Nor do they ever see or communicate 
with the world outside their walls. Their immolation is com- 
plete. They spend their lives praying for the sins of the 
world, and in holy contemplation. They are engaged in no 
occupations; their cooking is done by lay sisters who make 



2 9 o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

their garments also and perform whatever service is needed 
within or without the convent walls. It is said that absolute 
silence is enjoined upon all the inmates. They cannot sing or 
speak or even pray aloud from one year's end to another, and 
with the exception of an hour which they pass in physical 
exercise every afternoon pacing the pavements of the patios 
with downcast eyes and folded hands, their entire time is spent 
in prayer before the altar of the chapel or in the seclusion of 
their cells. It is considered a social distinction in Bolivia for 
a family to have contributed one of its daughters to this order. 

This nunnery and the Franciscan monastery, which is nearly 
as large, were formerly very rich in mines and haciendas, but 
they have lost a large amount of their property and complain 
of being poor. Some of the most profitable mines in the 
Andes belong to the Franciscans and the Jesuits, and were 
worked by Indian slaves for centuries, but the introduction of 
modern machinery into other mines and the depreciation of 
the price of silver has caused them to be abandoned. La Paz 
has suffered severely from the same cause. It used to be an 
enormously rich city, and, isolated there in the mountains, 
inaccessible to the rest of the world except by a journey of 
thirty-five or forty days on horseback, before the railroad was 
built, among themselves the people enjoyed a peculiar pride 
and distinction in their own achievements, which have been 
dissipated since poverty and modern ideas and foreign fash- 
ions have been brought in among them. It is now only five 
days' journey by stage and boat and railway train to a seaport 
where one may take a steamer to the United States or Europe, 
and it used to be forty. That certainly is progress. Not 
many years ago you could buy nothing in Bolivia that was not 
manufactured by hand within its own boundaries. Now the 
show windows of the principal streets are filled with the latest 
fashions and flummery from Paris and Berlin, New York and 
London, and those who can pay the price may wear a French 
bonnet to the bull fight. 

Piled up in the show windows are packages of English soap, 
French perfumery, Chicago tinned meats, Oregon salmon, 
New England codfish, kodaks, fountain pens and an infinite 




A Power in the La?id. 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 291 

variety of other novelties from all corners of the world, but 
most of the substantial goods are made in Germany. The 
Germans very nearly monopolize the retail business there, as 
in other parts of South America, and of course buy their 
goods at home. 

Other cities in Bolivia are not so far advanced as La Paz. 
Most of them are 100 years behind the times, and still adhere 
to the antiquated manners and methods which their ancestors 
brought from Spain. There is certainly no part of America — 
I think it is safe to say that there is no spot in the civilized 
universe — that is so far behind the age or where primitive 
modes of life prevail as they do in Bolivia. 

The many fine houses in La Paz testify to the former 
wealth of its inhabitants. They are built upon the Spanish 
plan, and are grand, gloomy and peculiar. The large drawing 
rooms are filled with antiquated furniture of most elaborate 
patterns, the walls are decorated with ancestral portraits and 
ancient paintings, many of them of great value, and massive 
mirrors which make you wonder how they could possibly have 
been brought over the mountains. There is a passion for mir- 
rors among all of the Spanish- American peoples, and in some 
houses can be found pier glasses held in massive Florentine 
frames that are worth more than all the rest of the furniture 
under the roof combined. These are particularly expensive in 
the Andean country, where until recently, as I have told you, 
everything had to be carried across the desert and over the 
Cordilleras on the back of mules or llamas, but they were 
bought in the bonanza days of Bolivia, when the mines were 
pouring out streams of silver and people could afford to be 
extravagant. I have seen in a single drawing room in La Paz 
as much plate glass as can be found in the whole of a luxurious 
mansion in New York. 

It is a mystery, too, how they got so many pianos up there. 
The people are passionately fond of music, and every man 
and woman among the white class is a performer upon the 
piano or some other instrument. There are several gifted 
composers in Bolivia, and the native music is attractive because 
of its peculiar time and quaint melody ; but it is a never- 



292 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ending wonder how pianos that were manufactured in France 
and Germany are found in nearly every house and could have 
been brought across the weary trails and over the slippery 
passes of the mountains by pack animals. 

The inclines in the streets of La Paz are so sharp that some 
of the houses have one story in front and three stories in the 
rear. There is a good hotel, the best I have found in South 
America, and it occupies the old palace of the governor of 
Spain, which according to an inscription over the portico was 
erected in 1775. It is a pretentious structure, of carved stone, 
and its massive walls were intended to outlive centuries. The 
spacious and lofty audience chamber in which the governor 
received official delegations and entertained his constituents 
in the name of the king is now a bar and billiard room, where 
a considerable portion of the male population appear to pass 
their evenings drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. 

The Plaza, which is overlooked by the windows of the 
hotel, is a pretty place, with a fountain from which many of 
the poorer families draw their daily supply of water, and has a 
number of well-kept shrubs and plants. Every alternate even- 
ing at 8 o'clock a military band plays in this park, and the 
entire population turn out to enjoy the music and promenade. 
It is almost their only social diversion, as opera and theatrical 
companies very seldom take the trouble to come so far as La 
Paz, and the exchange of hospitality is limited chiefly to the 
men folks. On each alternate night the band plays in the 
Almeda, a handsome promenade, shaded by eucalyptus trees 
and furnished with rows of iron benches. This is the most 
popular resort in town, and Sunday afternoon, when there is 
no bull fight or horse race, everybody comes out in his best 
garments to see and be seen and gossip with his neighbors. 

The Bolivians are a dressy people and take much account 
of their apparel. It is necessary that every gentleman should 
have a silk hat and a long frock coat, which he wears on all 
occasions of ceremony, and particularly when he promenades 
in the plaza or the Almeda. When he goes to a wedding or a 
funeral or an indoor function of any sort whatever by night or 
day he wears a swallowtail coat, a low-cut waistcoat, an 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 293 

embroidered shirt front, and a large white tie. His "boots are 
of patent leather, and often pinch his feet, if one may judge by 
the gingerly way in which he picks out the smooth places in 
the pavement. 

When a young man falls in love he does not call at the 
home of his inamorata, but writes her a letter, or indites a 
poem to her eyebrow, or buys a bunch of flowers in an elabor- 
ate cornucopia of lace paper, or all three, and sends them 
through one of the servants of the family. And when he 
meets her in the Plaza or the Almeda, clinging to her father's 
arm, or under the vigilant chaperonage of her mother, he casts 
lingering glances of adoration into her coal-black eyes. In his 
letter he tells her that he will promenade the pavement oppo- 
site her father's house at 3 o'clock on the next afternoon, and 
if she shows her approval of his attentions by presenting her- 
self at the window he confides his love to his father or some 
sympathetic relative, who conveys a formal proposal of mar- 
riage to her parents. If it is accepted and the stipulations are 
satisfactory, he is allowed to call upon her, but her mother or 
some duenna is always present during his visits, and the 
arrangements for the wedding follow as rapidly as possible. 

When a gentleman desires to pay a social call upon a 
family of his acquaintance he must first ask for the gentleman 
of the house, and if he is not at home the visitor must leave 
cards and retire. If the host is in the visitor asks permission 
to see the ladies, which is readily granted, but it would be the 
height of impropriety to ask for them unless the husband or 
father is at home. It is not proper even for a doctor to see 
a lady patient except in the presence of her husband or father 
or brother. 

The climate of La Paz is very trying to strangers who are 
not accustomed to live among the clouds, and particularly to 
fat people and cats. Concerning cats I speak from hearsay 
only. I have had no opportunity for personal investigation, 
but have been informed by a person of good reputation and 
respectable connections that there are no cats in Bolivia. 
When I repeated this novel fact to another gentleman of sim- 
ilar social standing he declared that it was a three-story 



2 9 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

falsification ; that the country was full of cats ; that they stuck 
their heads out of every doorway and sung to the moon every 
night from the top of every barnyard fence; but when I 
brought the two eminent authorities together, and they had 
argued the question until both were very red in the face and 
had lost their tempers entirely, the man who asserted that 
Bolivia was full of cats was reluctantly compelled to admit 
that he had never seen one within its territorial limits, 
although he stuck to it stubbornly that there were millions of 
them in the mountains of Peru. The party of the first part, 
taking advantage of the concession, then declared that cats 
could not live at an elevation of 12,000 feet; that the experi- 
ment had been tried many times and that the animals invari- 
ably died from convulsions when taken to a higher altitude. 
I leave the question open to discussion by whom it may 
concern, but can bear testimony that I saw no cats in Bolivia, 
although they may be as numerous and as active as more 
minute members of animate creation which make themselves 
felt, if they are not seen or heard. 

At the elevation, 12,250 feet above the sea, the atmosphere 
of La Paz is so rare that breathing is difficult, and persons 
afflicted with heart disease or weak lungs or a superabundance 
of flesh must avoid exertion as much as possible. The veins 
in your head feel as if they were about to burst ; you pant like 
a tired hound as you climb the steep streets of the city or the 
stairway of the hotel, and are compelled to stop every few 
moments to rest and recover your breath. There are sharp 
pains in the lungs, a drowsiness about the head and eyes, and 
when you lie down to sleep at night your heart will thump 
against your ribs like a pile-driver. Unless you are careful 
you will bring on sirroche, or puna, or veta, as the same 
disease is known in different parts of the Andes. The 
Bolivian name, "mareo Montana," is as bad as an Irish 
bull, for, literally translated, it means mountain seasickness. 
Another disease that is due to the altitude is sirumpe, a 
violent inflammation of the nerves of the eye caused by the 
winds, the bright rays of the sun and the rarefied atmosphere. 
The pain is intense and is often attended by delirium. 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 295 

But none of these things is so troublesome as the cold. 
The temperature goes as high as 80 and 82 degrees at noonday 
and falls to 19 and 20 degrees at night in winter, and during 
the summer months the extremes are almost the same. The 
lowest record for the year 1899 was 19 degrees above zero. 
The maximum was 84. The temperature often varies fifty and 
sixty degrees in twenty-four hours out of doors. The 
extremes are less inside the walls of the houses, which are so 
thick that the heat can never penetrate them. It always 
seems colder indoors than out, and as there is no means of 
warming the houses by stoves or furnaces they are very 
uncomfortable. Of course you can go out and sit in the park 
where the sun's rays may strike you, or you can drink hot 
tea and other beverages which are supposed to increase the 
temperature of the blood and serve the purpose of a fur-lined 
overcoat, but the relief is only temporary. The natives pile 
on ponchos as they put on kimonos in Japan and stick their 
benumbed feet into muffs made of wool or fur. The evenings 
are particularly disagreeable in this respect. We lighted all 
the lamps we could get, regardless of the extravagance, for 
the hotel keeper charged sixty cents a night extra for each of 
those luxuries, and 25 cents for candles; we put on our over- 
coats and hats, wrapped our legs up in fur robes and huddled 
around a center table trying to be amiable and happy, but it 
was no use. The only warm place was in bed between the 
blankets. When we were invited out to dinner and had to 
put on our evening suits, and the ladies their low-necked and 
short-sleeved dresses, we felt as if we might perish from the 
cold before the ordeal was over, but those who are accustomed 
to the climate live along without appearing to notice it. 

There is only one stove in La Paz, and that warms the 
reception room of the American legation. Dr. Bridgeman, 
our minister, brought it from New Jersey, and had a ton of 
coal shipped up there from the railway headquarters at 
Arequipa. There is no other fuel in the city except llama 
dung, which is picked up by the Indians on the trails, dried, 
brought to town in bags, and sold at the rate of about $2 a 
bushel. The natives regard Dr. Bridgeman's stove with awe 



296 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and apprehension, as if it were an infernal machine. They 
think that artificial heat is unhealthy and poisons the air. 
Gas stoves are useless, for there is no gas. The streets are 
lighted with electricity, which has been recently introduced 
into many of the shops and houses. 

As one might expect, pulmonary complaints are quite 
prevalent and pneumonia is almost always fatal. Strangers 
are cautioned against exposure to the night air and the noon- 
day sun, whose fierce rays are more keenly felt through the 
rarefied atmosphere and are apt to bring on sirumpe or moun- 
tain fever. We are not far from £he equator. La Paz lies 
upon the sixteenth parallel of latitude, which is about the 
same as Jamaica, and the elevation and the unusual clearness 
of the atmosphere cause the rays of the sun to be felt more 
than in an atmosphere that contains moisture and at the level 
of the sea. For the same reasons the cold is less severe. The 
same temperature could not be endured in a moist climate 
without fires, and, curiously enough, although the mercury 
may run down to 20 degrees and water freeze in the streets, 
plants are rarely frost-bitten. 

The people, young and old, are terribly afraid of the moon. 
They doubtless have caught the superstition from the Indians, 
and dread exposure to its rays more than a pestilence. If the 
moonlight falls upon a sleeping person he is sure to become 
insane; if a "mild beam" strikes a baby it will die of convul- 
sions before the month is gone ; if you expose your face to the 
moon you will have neuralgia or the toothache; if you go 
bareheaded in the moonlight all your hair will fall out, and 
various other misfortunes befall those who are so imprudent 
as to expose themselves to the evil influence of that luminary. 
A Bolivian lover would sooner surrender a year's income than 
take a moonlight ramble with his sweetheart. It would be 
equal to suicide. Instead of waiting for a full moon to make 
a journey, as we often do, the Bolivians will stay at home 
until the last quarter. Mrs. Bandelier, who is herself an 
accomplished ethnologist, and knows the ways and the super- 
stitions of the aborigines even better than her husband, 
explained that all their plans and arrangements are regulated 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 297 

or affected in some manner by the position of the moon, 
and she believes that there must be some foundation for a 
superstition that is so fixed and general. 

The Indians of Bolivia drink enormous quantities of raw 
alcohol, which can produce intoxication quicker than any other 
kind of liquor. They also drink a great deal of chicha, the 
native beverage, which is made of corn. The upper classes 
drink beer and keep three breweries busy. 

There are several newspapers in Bolivia, but they are 
purely political and literary. Neither of them receives tele- 
graphic dispatches, but all reprint news from El Commercio 
of Lima and the Valparaiso papers. 

The policemen wear scarlet overcoats with hoods which 
they pull over their heads at night until they look like Mephis- 
topheles in the opera. They do not patrol the streets, but 
stand at the corners, and every fifteen minutes at night blow a 
melancholy strain upon a whistle to show that they are awake. 
Then they change places with each other. In the old-fash- 
ioned towns of the interior it is still customary for the police 
to call out the hours at night and their voices have such a 
melancholy tone that they sound like the cry of a lost soul. 

' ' Sereno - o - o - o ■ o , Sereno -0-0-0-0; Las diez y media y 
Sereno -0-0-0." (All's well; all's well; it is ten and a half 
and all is well.) 

There is very little disorder in La Paz, although there is 
an unusual amount of drunkenness among the Indians. Thei e 
are forty-nine religious and five political holidays each year, 
besides Sundays, when all business is suspended and all shops 
are closed. On the day following these feasts, and usually 
upon all Mondays, it is practically impossible to get any woi k 
done because the entire laboring population is resting up after 
its holiday. 

The effect of the frequent revolutions is to produce a large 
crop of young officers who wear brilliant uniforms and look 
very well in them. The trousers are scarlet, with blue stripes 
along the seams, and the jackets are of dark blue cloth, 
embroidered with an excessive amount of gold braid. A 
lieutenant in the Bolivian army wears as much gold braid 



298 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

upon his jacket and cap as all the major-generals in the United 
States combined. They are fine-looking fellows, these young 
officers, although they have no military education and very 
little experience. An appointment in the army is the ambi- 
tion of every young man of good family, although the pay is 
insignificant and they have to be supported by their parents. 
The recent revolution aroused a military spirit that will take a 
long time to subside. 

The privates are almost exclusively Indians or half-breeds, 
short, stocky fellows, beardless and broad shouldered, with 
great powers of endurance and a courage and stoicism similar 
to that of the North American Indian. They belong to the 
Aymara race, and their ancestors formed a part of the Inca 
empire, having been subjugated by the Peruvians 200 or 300 
years before the Spanish invasion. They are frugal in their 
habits and of patient disposition. Their food consists chiefly 
of beans, dried peas, parched corn, dried potatoes and coca, 
which they chew constantly. The coca habit among the 
Bolivians is as general as the opium habit with the Chinese 
or smoking among the Irish. It is very seldom that the 
soldiers can read or write and they live without any ambition 
or idea of advancement. Whenever they get an opportunity 
they give themselves up to intoxication, but in the barracks 
are sober, docile and industrious. They fight on either side 
with equal energy, they have no idea of principle, but follow 
their officers with blind obedience for a nominal pay of $3 a 
month in silver or about $1.50 in our money. The soldiers 
are recruited in the country districts or impressed into the 
service by local officials, who are called upon each year to 
furnish their quota for the national guard, although conscrip- 
tion is nominally prohibited by the constitution. 

One Sunday we witnessed a military mass. There are no 
chaplains attached to the Bolivian army, but whenever it is 
possible on Sunday morning the soldiers are marched to 
church. On Saturday afternoon they are marched in the same 
manner to the bank of the river, where they take a bath and 
each man washes his other shirt, his socks, his towel and his 
handkerchief if he has one, in the cold water. This ceremony 




Bolivian Soldiers. 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 299 

is performed with the same demonstration and discipline that 
attends the religious service. The regiment is led by its band 
through the principal streets of the city and carries its banners 
and flags. In fact, the troops seem to be always marching. 
At almost every hour of the day you can hear strains of martial 
music from one direction or another. 

The military mass was celebrated at the church of the 
Dominican friars. It is a fashionable place of worship, and 
one of the largest in the city. Behind the altar rail sat a group 
of gentlemen, including the members of the junta who com- 
posed the provisional government of the republic until a new 
president could be elected in October; the commander of the 
garrison of La Paz, with his staff, and the mayor of the city, 
and at either side of the altar stood a stalwart soldier support- 
ing the colors of the regiment. Immediately in front of the 
rail were the colonel and other line officers, and behind them 
were massed, between the two rows of big pillars, the mem- 
bers of the entire regiment, about 800 men, standing twelve 
abreast and leaning upon their muskets. 

On either side, near the altar, were groups of kneeling 
women from the fashionable families of La Paz, with their 
faces and figures partially concealed by mantas. The brilliant 
uniforms of the officers, the golden embroidery on their sleeves 
and breasts, and the aiguilettes that hung from their collars 
and buttons, their erect attitude and soldierly bearing com- 
bined to afford an unusual and an impressive sight. 

Both officers and men stood like statues through the entire 
service, with their eyes upon the officiating priest. At the 
elevation of the host a hoarse order to present arms disturbed 
the solemn silence, and as the priest lifted the chalice that 
contained the emblems the sergeants that stood each side of 
the altar dipped their colors, every officer drew his sword and 
stood in the attitude of salute and the musket barrel of every 
soldier was held parallel to his nose. The next instant the 
regimental trumpeters sounded the salute of honor, the 
drum corps beat the long roll, and the napkin was replaced 
upon the chalice and the doors of the tabernacle were closed. 
The federal building, in which the president resides and 



3 oo BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

where his ministers have their offices, is a modern structure of 
well-carved stone, three stories in height, and fronts the 
principal plaza of La Paz. It surrounds a large courtyard or 
patio with wide galleries, and the apartments to which the 
public are admitted are high and spacious. The president's 
room is furnished with a fine lot of carved furniture and gilt 
mirrors. 

The congress sits in an old Jesuit monastery, which occu- 
pies another side of the plaza. The chamber of deputies has 
the chapel and the senate what was once the library of the 
monks. 

There is an interesting market in La Paz. It is open daily 
for trading in all sorts of merchandise of domestic manu- 
facture, but on Sundays and Wednesdays the Indians come in 
from all the surrounding country, bringing their handiwork as 
well as the products of their farms and gardens, and make an 
attractive display of ponchos, blankets and other homespun 
fabrics, native jewelry, toys and trinkets of every sort. The 
Indian women are very ingenious and industrious, and have 
remarkable taste in the arrangement of colors and devising of 
designs. They love gay colors and embroideries and wear 
quantities of other adornments. They have a distinctive cos- 
tume of home manufacture which the dealers in imported 
goods fortunately have not been able to disturb. They usually 
wear a little panama hat, braided of soft white fiber, with a 
black band around it, similar to those worn by men, with the 
exception of a narrow rim, and it is perched jauntily upon their 
abundant black hair, which hangs in two long braids down 
their backs. 

Their dresses resemble those worn by the peasants in the 
Tyrol. The skirts are of gay colors, made very full and 
smocked from the waist down a distance of six inches, and 
above the deep hem are three broad tucks. The material, 
which comes from the native looms, resembles canton flannel 
with the fleecy side out, and velveteen of brilliant hues is pop- 
ular, with braid in rows of a different color. The skirt is very 
short, hanging above the shoetops and revealing gay hosiery 
and native shoes of bright-colored leather, with long laces and 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 301 

high French heels. Sometimes the shoes are white, sometimes 
yellow, red or purple — the brighter the better, and any color 
except black. Under the skirt are an indefinite number of 
white petticoats, elaborately embroidered and edged with lace. 
The waists are made of bright-colored calico, velveteen and 
other fabrics, and around their shoulders they wear light 
shawls or scarfs called rebosas. 

Brass or silver chains, bracelets of hammered silver, copper, 
tortoise shell and other materials encircle the wrists, and one 
or more rings ornament every finger. Their earrings are 
large and long, usually of silver gilt set with cheap stones, 
imitation emeralds, garnets and artificial pearls. 

The older women affect colors that are quite as gay and 
usually have a baby swung over their backs in a shawl. 

The girls are not pretty, but many are attractive. They 
have bright eyes, even white teeth and a good-natured expres- 
sion. Their complexions are clear but dark — copper-colored, 
like the squaw of the American Indians. 

The shawl is usually fastened by a long brass stickpin, and 
sometimes several of them, with the bowl of a spoon for the 
head, thereby combining ornament and utility. Other forms 
of stickpins, like skewers, are also used. The women of the 
interior tribes deface their teeth by filing them into sharp 
points and setting little gems into the surface, as the women 
of some of the oriental contries do. 

The men always go barefooted and barelegged, and wear 
short wide trousers of some dark woolen cloth that are slit up 
the back as far as the knee, so as to give their legs freer action 
in climbing the mountain trails. Under these trousers they 
have white cotton drawers, which always seem to be clean and 
well laundered. Upon their heads they wear a close-fitting 
cap or hood of knitted work or some dark woolen cloth that fits 
closely down over the ears and neck like the hoods children 
wear in cold weather in New England. Upon this they wear 
any kind of a hat they prefer, of straw or felt or any other 
material, while their shoulders and bodies are protected by the 
inevitable poncho, which is their coat by day and their blanket 
by night, a comprehensive as well as a comfortable garment. 



3 o2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The poncho dates back to prehistoric times, and the ruler of 
the Inca empire, when he sat upon his throne, wore one woven 
of the silver hair of the vicuna. The ponchos you see in Peru 
are of somber colors. Those worn in Bolivia are like Joseph's 
coat, of many colors, and the most brilliant that can be pro- 
cured. 

In dealing at the market a customer is not expected to pay 
the first price asked. If he does the seller will be much disap- 
pointed, because she will lose the opportunity of showing her 
shrewdness in making a bargain. 

At the market place and at the postoffice, as on the quays 
of Constantinople and Alexandria, are professional scribes, 
with a package of stationery and an ink bottle, who for a small 
fee will undertake the correspondence of those who lack liter- 
ary gifts or whose education has been neglected. 

A curious commodity that enters into nearly all prepara- 
tions of food always attracts the curiosity of travelers who visit 
the Bolivian markets. It is preserved potatoes, cut into cubes 
or slices and exposed to the air until the moisture is entirely 
evaporated. The chips have a dry, corky appearance, and are 
almost tasteless. They are always used in the preparation of 
"chupe," the national dish, which is usually the first course at 
both breakfast and dinner. 

Salt is sold in cubes about the size of building bricks used 
in the United States, being pressed into shape when damp and 
allowed to harden. 

The Indians of the interior wear shirts and hats made of 
the bark of a tree, which is soaked in water to soften the fiber 
and then beaten to make it pliable. 

In the markets and at the shops in this country it is the 
habit of customers to demand what they call a "yappa" — a 
present, a little something "to boot." If you buy a parcel of 
vegetables from a market woman she must throw in a potato, 
an onion or an orange, or if you buy a dress at a dry -goods 
store you expect a piece of ribbon or a paper of pins. The 
buyer is not allowed to make the selection ; the seller reserves 
that privilege. 

The ancient bridges found in Bolivia are exceedingly sim- 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 303 

pie in construction, but are well adapted for crossing the rapid 
streams that rush down from the Andes and defy the skill of 
the modern engineer. They consist of strong cables of the 
cabuya, a native vine, or of a twisted rawhide stretched from 
one bank to the other, something after the style of the suspen- 
sion bridges of our times. Poles were lashed transversely, 
covered with palm leaves, reeds, split bamboo branches, and 
these were again covered with earth and stones so as to form a 
solid floor. Other cables extended along the sides, which were 
interwoven with similar material or the limbs of trees, forming 
a kind of wicker balustrade. In some cases the mode of transit 
was a basket or car suspended on a single cable and drawn 
from side to side with ropes. One would think that bridges of 
this description would not be very enduring, yet those exist 
which are said to have been constructed by the Incas more 
than 400 years ago. 

1 ' I hope you will go to the bullfight this afternoon, ' ' said a 
young woman with a pleasant face as I passed her on the gallery 
of the hotel at La Paz, "because I'm an American from New 
York, and my husband is the chief matador. He is a Span- 
iard, and we have been fighting like everything ever since the 
war with Spain began, for I had to stick up for my country, 
and he had to stick up for his, and wasn't it great that we 
whipped? I don't know what I should have done if the 
Spaniards had won at Santiago ! My husband was certain they 
would, and I was terribly nervous; but didn't Sampson and 
Dewey give it to them, though? I teased my husband about 
it so much that he was mad for a week, and then the news- 
papers down here were all on the side of Spain, every one of 
them, and he'd read me pieces every morning telling what 
cowards the Yankees were, and how easily the Spaniards were 
going to do them up, but I told him to just wait and see. I 
was awfully scared all the same. I didn't know what might 
happen, and almost everybody was against me, but I kept my 
mouth shut, and then when we whipped them I had the talk 
all to myself. My husband and his Spanish friends were so 
disgusted and astonished that they couldn't say a word. They 
didn't dream it would be so easy, nor did I, either, but I rubbed 



3 o 4 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

it into them good, I can tell you; and you will come to the 
bullfight, won't you, if it's only because I'm an American? 
My husband will be proud to have you, and the papers say 
he's the best matador in South America. There isn't another 
that can touch him, for he's had the best training a man can 
get in Spain, and he's awfully handsome. You must have 
noticed him about the hotel," and so the bullfighter's wife 
prattled on in a pleasant way about her novel experience and 
her admiration for the man who had made a romance of her 
life. 

She was a New York girl, and had married him in Lima 
against the wishes of her family ; and contrary to their gloomy 
predictions he had turned out to be the most devoted of hus- 
bands and she had been "awfully happy" with him. 

I met the paragon a few moments afterward, and in most 
elaborate phrases he expressed the honor he would feel if we 
would attend the bullfight. He looked like Louis James used 
to look when he was younger — a frank, open-faced fellow, with 
a pleasant smile and a pair of innocent brown eyes that seemed 
incapable of cruelty. He said that he already had ordered a 
box reserved for our party, and would kill the third bull before 
it in our honor. 

Bullfighting in Bolivia, as in Spain, is the national amuse- 
ment, and calls out about the same degree of enthusiasm as a 
football game in the States. The authorities of the munici- 
pality preside over the function, and the mayor of the city sits 
in the most conspicuous box with a trumpeter by his side to 
direct the performance. They do not permit horses to be 
gored, as in Spain and Mexico, and when the cruel amusement 
has continued long enough the trumpet sounds and the mata- 
dor is obliged to dispatch the panting animal with as much 
mercy and skill as possible. 

The bull ring occupies the summit of one of the many hills 
that are covered by the city of La Paz, and overlooks a large 
area of picturesque roofs of red tile. It is a circle of adobe 
wall about 200 feet in diameter, inclosed with terraced benches 
that are sheltered by a roof of galvanized iron. The woodwork 
is roughly made, but it answers the purpose. Over the main 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 305 

entrance is the mayor's box, ornamented by the national col- 
ors, and beside it was stationed a military band which enter- 
tained the audience during the intervals between the forays. 
The audience was not large, and was mostly assembled on the 
shady side of the amphitheater. The sunny seats, which are 
sold at half price, although they are more comfortable than the 
others, were occupied by soldiers, street gamins, and peons, 
who wore bright-colored ponchos. Among the better class of 
the audience were many children, and even babies — the same 
kind of people that one sees at a circus at home. 

His honor, the alcalde Senor Zuazo, was late, and when he 
entered his box the audience manifested satisfaction by clap- 
ping their hands, while the urchins on the other side shouted, 
"Fine him," and made other disrespectful remarks. As this 
august official took a seat with great dignity the trumpeter at 
his side sounded a signal. The doors swung open and the 
troop of performers entered with Francisco Palomar, or ' ' Caro- 
Chico" (Little Love), as he is familiarly known, at the head. 
He had six companions, picadores and banderilleros, clad in 
gorgeous costumes elaborately embroidered in silver and gold. 
They wore cocked hats, and wigs and cues that hung down 
between their shoulders, silk stockings of different colors and 
slippers with big silver buckles, such as you see in pictures. 
The band played a triumphal march as the party posed in the 
center of the ring and bowed in acknowledgment of the plau- 
dits. According to the posters it was a "Gran competencia de 
los valientes Matadores Caro-Chico y Cuqui. Se lidaran 6 
hermosos y bravos toros escogidos y probados escrupulosa- 
mente para esta corrida," which in short means that Caro- 
Chico would compete with Cuqui and the great company of 
matadors would fight six brave and beautiful bulls which had 
been scrupulously selected for that occasion. 

After salutes and salutations had been exchanged between 
the performers and the audience, Caro-Chico stepped forward 
and made a low bow to the mayor. The latter acknowledged 
the salute with impressive dignity, and nodded to the trum- 
peter, who blew a triumphant blast. The gates opened and a 
big black bull which was named on the programme as "quita 



3 o6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

penas" rushed into the ring. He stopped at the center, stared 
around in wonder at the surprising spectacle, then turned tail 
and ran back to the entrance trying to return to the stable. It 
was evident that he did not intend to fight, and the crowd 
shouted in derision. The picadores came out to tease him, 
and the frightened animal dodged them the best he could. 
When the banderilleros, with handsomely decorated darts in 
their hands, came forward the bull ran around the ring trying 
to avoid them and looking anxiously for shelter. The audience 
roared with ridicule and hissed like a lot of lunatics. They 
shouted instructions to the alcalde, who good-naturedly 
accepted their verdict and ordered the trumpeter to sound a 
recall. The cowardly animal was turned out, and the mata- 
dores and picadores crossed their legs and rested. 

In a few seconds the trumpet sounded again, and in rushed 
another bull, black and white, much smaller than the other, 
and with a good deal more temper. He pawed the dust in the 
center of the ring and looked savage, but the picadores played 
with him without the slightest fear of danger, flapped their 
scarlet cloaks under his nose and touched his horns with their 
hands. An agile fellow faced him for a moment and then 
plunged a couple of sticks with iron barbs and tissue-paper 
fringe into his sides. The bull snorted and shook his frame in 
a frantic way, plunging in one direction and then in another, 
but could not shake them off. For ten minutes or more his 
tormentors teased him, until his dripping sides were almost 
hidden with the cruel darts. Then Caro-Chico appealed to the 
alcalde for permission to kill him. 

Drawing his long sword the matador approached the frantic 
animal with the weapon concealed under his scarlet cloak. 
The bull followed him with terrified eyes and made two or 
three attacks which the matador gracefully evaded. Then, 
looking the animal squarely in the face, as if to hypnotize him, 
and muttering something in a low tone, he darted forward and 
buried his sword in the beast's heart. The blood gushed from 
the animal's mouth and nostrils, and with a piteous groan he 
sunk upon his knees and rolled over upon the crimson pool. 

The audience screamed with admiration, and many threw 




Caro Chico — the Bull Fighter 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 307 

their hats at the matador, which is the highest tribute of 
applause. Caro-Chico picked them up one after another and 
gravely bowed as he tossed them back to their owners. Mean- 
time a half a dozen peons with a team of mules decorated with 
Bolivian colors appeared in the ring, and, hitching a rope 
around the horns of the dead animal, hauled the carcass out of 
sight and sprinkled sand over the bloody spot where it had 
fallen. 

"The intrepido perdigon," as the next animal was 
announced upon the programme, had no spunk at all, and ran 
away from his tormentors until the crowd demanded better 
sport, and the alcalde ordered the door opened and the animal 
put out. The fourth was a little red fellow called "calsetero," 
and he plunged from one side of the ring to the other as if he 
intended to tear everything to pieces. There was more fight 
in him and more fury than in either of the others, and it 
required all of the agility of the banderilleros to keep free of 
his horns, but, after a time, when he showed signs of fatigue, 
the second matador, Francisco Espinoso, whose stage name is 
"Cuqui," came forward at a signal from the alcalde and 
attempted to dispatch him, but his sword struck the shoulder- 
bone and only went in half way. The bull snorted and 
plunged until he shook it out. One of the picadores recov- 
ered the weapon from the dust and returned it to Cuqui, who 
tried a second and even a third time before he killed the 
animal. 

Meantime the audience became furious with contempt and 
disgust, and raged as a North American audience often does 
at a baseball game when they don't like a decision of the 
umpire. They called Cuqui a butcher, and demanded that he 
should be put out ; they threw orange peel and beer bottles at 
him, and no form of ridicule or contempt was lost in the 
excitement that followed. The culprit endeavored to preserve 
his composure and show his indifference, but he was not very 
successful. 

The raid continued until another little black bull called 
"burraquito" was admitted to the amphitheater and was fol- 
lowed by one of the banderilleros on horseback dressed up like 



308 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

a countryman or what our boys would call a "jay." This bit 
of comedy was not very successful, for, as was afterward 
explained, the bull had been raised in the same pasture with a 
lot of horses and was utterly indifferent to them. The horse- 
man, however, galloped around the ring with darts in his 
hands and plunged them with great skill into the neck and 
shoulders of the animal, which pawed the dust and tried to 
shake them out and kicked at the horse, but would not gore 
him. The young man ventured too far, however, at one time 
and was thrown from his saddle, which created a little excite- 
ment, but no harm was done, and as the horse was not blind- 
folded he was able to take care of himself. 

Then, at a signal from the alcalde, all the other performers 
retired and left Caro-Chico alone in the amphitheater. He 
came across to where we were sitting, tossed his hat into our 
box, made a graceful bow and said in Spanish : 

"For the honor of yourself and family." 

By this time the animal was frantic with fright and pain, 
and as Caro-Chico approached him made a terrific plunge. 
The bullfighter turned his back upon the animal and started 
to run away, but was not quick enough. One of the sharp 
horns caught in the seat of his trousers and tore quite a rent. 
With marvelous agility Caro-Chico turned, placed one hand 
upon the horn of the animal and vaulted out of danger, but it 
was a narrow escape, and he left one of his slippers lying on 
the sand. The bull sniffed at it and pawed it with his hoof, 
while Caro-Chico removed the other slipper, acknowledged the 
excited demonstrations of the audience, nodded to us as much 
as to say, "I am doing my best to entertain you," and then 
returned to his work. There was some skillful and reckless 
play. The audience held its breath at the audacity of the per- 
former, who seemed absolutely fearless and to delight in the 
most dangerous encounters with the infuriated animal. When 
the trumpet sounded he calmly turned toward the alcalde and 
acknowledged obedience, although the bull's horns were within 
an inch or two of his side. 

He stepped quickly to a box in which his American wife 
was sitting and received from her hands a long, new sword, 




Dr. Aloiizo, late President of Bolivia. 



THE CITY OF LA PAZ 3 o 9 

which he concealed under the folds of his scarlet cloak as he 
returned to the center of the ring, where the bull stood pant- 
ing and pawing the ground. Like a panther Caro-Chico slowly 
approached his prey with his eyes fastened upon those of the 
animal. There was a quick flash of the blade and all was over. 
The bull dropped like a lump of lead. In obedience to custom 
Caro-Chico came to the front of our box and bowed, and I 
tossed his hat back to him with an honorarium concealed under 
the sweatband. 

Another bull was brought into the ring and Espinoso made 
another bad break, to the intense indignation of the audience, 
who were mad enough to mob him. He drove his sword 
entirely through the animal, but missed the heart, and the poor 
creature plunged around the ring, leaving a stream of blood 
upon the ground, until one of the other performers crept up 
behind and drove a dagger into its brain. 

As the trumpet sounded for the last bull the urchins on the 
sunny side of the amphitheater tumbled over the railing into 
the ring and made themselves and the audience merry by teas- 
ing the poor animal, which had large rubber knobs upon his 
horns, so that it could not injure them. Their antics were 
amusing and the regular performers stood by to interfere in 
case the youngsters needed assistance, but the bull was neither 
active nor ugly, and stood entirely upon the defensive. This 
we found to be the custom of the country. The amateurs, the 
urchins who are ambitious to be bullfighters, are allowed an 
opportunity at every performance. 



XX 
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 

None of all the list of civilized countries in the geography 
is so isolated and antiquated as Bolivia. Situated in the cen- 
ter of the continent at an average elevation of 12,000 feet above 
the sea, with 150 miles of desert and a range of snowclad peaks 
between its territory and the Pacific, and another range of 
mountains and an impenetrable forest 1,000 miles deep on the 
other, with no railways, no telegraphs except a single wire 
erected by the government for military purposes and seldom 
capable of service, with a mail that is brought on muleback 
once a week or less frequently to its principal cities, and a 
general hostility to progress, to modern sciences and all inno- 
vations, what else could you expect? 

Some years ago the province of La Paz, which lies at the 
northern end of the republic and adjoins Peru, was invaded by 
Yankee enterprise. A railway was built from the seacoast to 
Lake Titicaca, and a line of steamers placed upon its myste- 
rious waters. Since then La Paz has made gradual progress, 
and is now the most populous and the most progressive of the 
nine departments. Indeed, modern ideas prevail in no other 
part of the country. The remainder of the population still 
live in the sixteenth century, under the influence of a few fam- 
ilies of the old Spanish aristocracy, who have kept their blood 
uncontaminated and are very rich, very proud and very con- 
servative. They abide at Sucre, Cochabamba, Potosi and other 
cities of the interior; they own the haciendas and the mines; 
they hate foreigners, resist innovations and are sufficient unto 
themselves, contented with their own ignorance and isolation. 
They hold the Indians in a form of servitude like the feudal 
system of the middle ages in Europe. 

Thus a few families, rich, exclusive and autocratic, have 

310 






~J^ 



o 




POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 311 

for many years controlled the government, and have kept the 
country in subjection and resisted every form of progress. 
Francisco Argendona, for example, one of the wealthiest men 
in America, controls the banking privileges of Bolivia. Ani- 
cito Arce, his brother-in-law, owns the Huanchaca silver 
mines, which are said to be the richest in the world, and other 
families of similar influence and position make up the little 
faction and have intermarried so frequently that their interests 
are mutual and they form a single family. 

Naturally, this state of affairs could not exist without pro- 
voking friction. Ambitious men who are not admitted to the 
chosen circle, and the progressive element, which has been 
01 ganized under the name of the liberal party, has kept up 
a continual protest. But it was useless. The clerical or con- 
servative party had behind it the army, the treasury and the 
executive power, and what was even more important, the 
electoral machinery, and controlled the congress and the 
courts. In Bolivia suffrage is limited to property owners. A 
man must have an income of $200 a year before he can vote, 
and that is a good deal of money in a society so primitive as 
we find here in the mountains. There is also an educational 
test, and the school privilege is limited to the aristocracy. 
The president appoints the judges of the courts, the governors 
and all the other influential officials of the provinces, the arch- 
bishop, the bishops and the other prelates of the church, and 
the clergy are assigned to parishes under his supervision, and 
their salaries are paid from the public treasury upon his war- 
rant Hence theie is centralized in him an authority and an 
influence as gteat as is exercised by any absolute monarch. 

There has been a lung fight over the location of the capital, 
which in the days of Spanish occupation was fixed at Sucre, an 
old-fashioned town in the far interior, which has made no prog- 
ress for a century and is now as far behind the times as any 
town in the interior of China. As a consolation to the pro- 
gressive element a law was passed some ) T ears ago permitting 
the president and his ministers to reside elsewhere and author- 
izing him to convoke congress wherever in his judgment was 
most convenient. Under this provision La Paz has been the 



3 i2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

actual, although Sucre is still the legitimate, capital of the 
republic; but last winter the conservative element, having 
become dissatisfied with the preference shown to that city, and 
fearing the effect of modern ideas and foreign immigration 
upon their exclusive policy, passed a law requiring the presi- 
dent and his cabinet to maintain the seat of government 
permanently at Sucre, which can be reached only after nine 
days' ride on muleback from La Paz, and is separated from 
the ports on the Pacific Ocean by both ranges of the Andes. 

When this vote was taken the seventeen members of the 
chamber of deputies from the department of La Paz retired 
from congress and returned to their homes, where a public 
meeting was held and resolutions of protest adopted. They 
objected to Sucre, because of its location and inaccessibility, 
and insisted that the seat of government should remain at La 
Paz, where it had been located almost constantly since railway 
communication was opened with the outside world. The 
president, Dr. Alonzo, being a conservative and a member of 
the little ring of aristocrats that had placed him in power, was 
living at La Paz, and made preparations to remove the seat 
of government. He was warned that if he did so he would 
meet with violent resistance, and very soon a revolution was 
declared. The department of La Paz, which is the most pro- 
gressive and the most populous of the entire country, and from 
which more than a half of the public revenue is derived, was 
united in the opposition, and received the support of the liberal 
element throughout the entire country. At the same time the 
leaders of the revolution adopted the dangerous expedient of 
arming the Indians, who were in a general state of discontent 
because of excessive taxation, the laws of peonage, the rule 
which required them to work on the roads without compensa- 
tion, and a natural tendency to restlessness. Until then the 
Indians were prohibited from carrying arms, and the sale of 
ammunition was a monopoly of the government. 

Jose Manuel Pando, a colonel of engineers, who had been 
involved in several unsuccessful revolutions attempted by the 
liberal party in the past, who had spent a considerable part of 
his life in exile at Panama, Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres, and 



/••■■ 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 313 

whose ideas were very much in advance of the party in power, 
was selected as leader and placed in command of the army. 
President Alonzo made a very weak resistance. There was 
a good deal of marching and plundering and guerrilla warfare 
by both armies, but only one pitched battle, which was fought 
in April, 1899, with extraordinary slaughter, and resulted in 
an overwhelming victory for Pando and the revolutionary 
forces. Alonzo' s soldiers who were not left dead upon the 
battlefield scattered in squads throughout the country. Many 
of them were overtaken and massacred by the Indian allies, and 
the stories told of their barbarities are almost beyond belief. 

It will depend largely upon the tact and prudence of 
Colonel Pando whether liberal ideas are hereafter to prevail 
in Bolivia. He is placed in a very difficult position, but is 
said to be a cool-headed, conscientious and broad-minded man. 
Although without experience in civil administration, he has 
had an opportunity to observe the conduct of affairs in several 
foreign countries, and is said to be gifted with a great deal of 
common sense. He has a mongrel lot of material to deal with 
in making up his government, and there his greatest difficulty 
lies, but the autocratic power that is allowed the president of 
Bolivia will enable him to keep a tight grasp upon all local 
affairs himself. 

Another great danger lies in the restlessness of the Indians. 
They present a very serious problem. Although the Spaniards 
have possessed this soil for three centuries and a half and have 
held them in subjection and servitude, they do not forget that 
their fathers were once lords of the land and that the earth 
was moistened with their blood before it was stolen from them. 
Nor have they abandoned their ancient pagan rites, but still 
observe them with scrupulous fidelity. They dream of a time 
when the Spanish intruders shall be expelled, when their 
ancestral acres shall be restored to them, and when members 
of their own race shall be elevated to power. One of the 
favorite occupations of the shamen, or priests, on their festival 
days, is to proclaim prophecies concerning the restoration of 
the Inca empire, and they make no secret of their hostility to 
white men and foreigners generally. They have secret organ- 



314 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

izations which even catholic priests of their own race are not 
allowed to penetrate, because the leaders are aware that the 
latter owe a higher obligation to the church, and the church 
has always been a part of the government. Their sorcerers 
and caciques, or native priests, constantly teach sedition, and 
the attitude of every Indian toward the government is that of 
insolent hostility, no matter who is in power. 

During the recent revolution many unauthorized promises 
were made to the Indians by local leaders in order to secure 
their aid for the liberal movement, and most of them it will 
be impossible for the new administration to fulfill. At the 
same time the Indians learned several valuable lessons in that 
brief experience, which will seriously affect their future con- 
duct. In the first place they became aware of their own 
power, of which previously they had only an imperfect con- 
ception. In the second place they have enjoyed immunity 
from punishment for the horrible outrages and excesses they 
committed. They have not been punished for murder nor 
compelled to restore stolen property, which is a most danger- 
ous precedent, and they attribute it to the timidity and impo- 
tence of their white rulers. In the third place, they have 
obtained arms for the first time in their lives, and a rifle is 
now concealed in nearly every Indian cabin. They have very 
little ammunition, and it will be difficult for them to obtain 
more ; nor have they any experience with the use of firearms, 
but they are quick to learn and very shrewd in accomplishing 
their designs. 

Jose" Manuel Pando resembles General Grant in appear- 
ance and manners. He is a stolid, stubborn man, so self- 
contained, silent and immovable that they call him the sphinx, 
and when I asked one of the best-posted men in the city what 
line of policy the new president would probably follow, he 
replied : 

"All of Jose" Manuel's secrets are kept under Jose" Manuel's 
hat. You won't find them anywhere else. He has no 
confidants. ' ' 

Colonel Pando is built of bone and muscle, a short, solid, 
athletic man, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, accus- 




Patio of a Bolivian Residence. 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 315 

tomed to hardships, fond of frugal living, and a great capacity 
for physical endurance, for he has spent the major portion of 
his life since he became a man campaigning in the mountains 
and exploring the wilderness on the east slope of the Andes. 
His face is intelligent, but wears a serious, imperturbable 
expression. He is without sense of humor, his social qualities 
are not strongly developed and he has never been accustomed 
to pleasure. His eyes are small and alert, his profile is finely 
cut and his hair and beard are so closely trimmed that no out- 
line of his head or face is concealed. He wears a snug-fitting 
undress uniform — a sack coat of blue, closely buttoned, and 
trousers of the same color and material, with no ornaments 
except the shoulder straps of a colonel. He looks quite plain 
and simple in comparison with the brass-mounted aides-de- 
camp who attend him and the ordinary gold braid and lace of 
the Bolivian officers. His manners are unostentatious and his 
reticence offers a striking contrast to the natural effusiveness 
of his race. He is modest, retiring and taciturn, a constant 
student, but more familiar with the military than the civil 
affairs of Europe and North America. 

Colonel Pando lives in a modest house on one of ,the side 
streets of La Paz, in which he was born. It has belonged to 
his family for several generations. The outer walls are 
painted light blue, the interior is old-fashioned and does not 
differ in appearance or arrangement from a majority of the 
residences in La Paz. It surrounds a patio paved with kidney 
stones in simple patterns of black and white. 

Passing up a narrow stairway we entered a gallery that 
overhangs the patio and found there a young officer in shining 
apparel, who took our cards and informed us that his chief 
was expecting us at that hour. We were ushered into a large 
apartment with windows looking upon the street which any 
one would recognize as the living room of a busy family. 
The old-fashioned furniture, well worn, was decorated with 
"tidies" of crochet work and embroidery. The tablespread 
was of some homemade knitted stuff. On the walls were 
amateur paintings and drawings and enlarged photographs in 
crayon of members of the family. There were jardinieres 



316 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

filled with artificial flowers and grasses that had been dipped 
in alum or salts and were covered with sparkling particles. 
The piano was littered with well-worn music and a guitar 
leaned against a chair near by on friendly terms with an idle 
sword which some member of the family had evidently 
detached from his belt and dropped there when he went in to 
breakfast, for we could hear the rattling of dishes and the 
chatter of familiar conversation through the glass doors that 
led into the next room. 

The president of Bolivia is a native of La Paz, of excellent 
family, untainted with Indian blood. He was educated at the 
National University, entered the army as an engineer about 
thirty years ago, and soon after joined a party of explorers 
under George Earl Church, an eminent engineer, who made 
a topographical survey of the eastern provinces of Bolivia and 
followed down the many affluents of the Amazon in search of 
a navigable channel from Bolivian territory to the Atlantic. 
He was engaged upon that and similar work for nine years, 
and wrote a book containing his experiences and observations, 
which is said to be interesting reading and was published by 
the government and by a syndicate which has a concession in 
that region. No one is more familiar with the unsettled area 
of this country than he and no one appreciates more highly 
the importance of its development. 

Impatient with the government for its conservatism and 
reactionary policy, Colonel Pando joined the liberal party and 
participated in several revolutions which were organized as a 
protest against what they considered fraudulent elections. He 
has spent most of the time during the last twenty years or so 
in exile, chiefly at Panama and Buenos Ayres, having a son in 
business at the latter place. All his family have been sent to 
England for education, and they speak English and French 
fluently, as well as Spanish. Colonel Pando himself under- 
stands English, which he learned from the engineers with 
whom he was associated in the Amazon country, but will not 
trust himself to speak in that language. 

One of his sons, a tall, fine-looking boy of 22, had just 
returned from England, and, like his father, will follow the 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 317 

profession of an engineer. He is now associated with an Eng- 
lishman named Satchell, making a survey for an electric rail- 
way between La Paz and Los Altos, as they call the plateau 
that surrounds the city. We saw the young man with his 
sister, a handsome girl of 18 or 19, at Copocobana during the 
Indian festivities. 

The government house, in which the president resides, or 
"el palacio de govierno," as it is called, is quite an imposing 
structure, with large apartments, high ceilings, many large 
mirrors with heavy Florentine frames, and old-fashioned 
mahogany furniture, but it has remained unoccupied so much 
that it has a musty smell and a dilapidated appearance. 

The "scala del congreso," or hall of representatives, is a 
large room without desks, but with two rows of seats on either 
side, which are occupied by the members, the government 
party being on one side and the opposition on the other. At 
one end is a platform upon which the president sits in a large 
gilt chair under a canopy of scarlet velvet edged with gold 
fringe, and he rings a little tea bell instead of using a gavel. 
At the other end of the room is a "barra," or railing, outside 
of which the public are admitted without restriction and dur- 
ing interesting debates this space is usually crowded with sym- 
pathizers of the different factions, and admirers of the leaders. 
Two soldiers armed with rifles guard the entrance, and a gen- 
eral of the army is detailed to act as sergeant-at-arms. A new 
presiding officer is elected every month. 

The members of the cabinet are allowed seats on the floor 
and can participate in the debates, but have no vote. The 
president of the republic has the similar privilege, but seldom 
exercises it. He usually appears at the opening of each session 
of congress, and delivers his message orally, instead of in 
writing, and on the closing day he makes a farewell address to 
both houses, which meet in joint session. Whenever he enters 
the chamber he is accompanied by a color bearer carrying the 
national ensign, which, by the way, is quite a gorgeous one, 
being composed of three wide bars of yellow, scarlet and 
green. He wears a uniform heavily embroidered with gold 
lace, is girded with a tri-colored sash, and wears three plumes 



318 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

in a cocked hat which also represents the national colors. He 
is always attended by a large staff of military men. 

The president is ex-officio commander-in-chief of the army 
with the rank of captain-general. He receives a salary of 
18,000 bolivianos, which are worth about 50 cents in gold, and 
an allowance of $6,000 for incidental expenses. 

There is a property qualification for suffrage in Bolivia. 
No man can vote unless he has an income of at least 200 boli- 
vianos a year, and he must be able to read and write. Bank- 
rupts and all men who work for wages are debarred from 
voting, the latter on the theory that their action would be con- 
trolled by their employers. To be a member of the house of 
representatives one must have an income of 400 bolivianos 
and 800 bolivianos to be a senator. There is an alternate for 
every senator and representative, who takes the seat, performs 
the duties and draws the salary of 200 bolivianos a month in 
absence of the principal. No man can hold office or vote who 
owes money to the government. 

The members of the cabinet are responsible to congress, as 
in England, and not to the president. They are responsible to 
the parliament, and not to the crown — in fact, the Bolivian 
constitution is modeled in this respect to that of France. 

The provinces are governed by prefects, who are appointed 
by the president and are responsible to him. The judges of 
the federal courts are elected by the congress, and they appoint 
the judges of the lower courts. The municipalities are gov- 
erned by alcaldes and councils ; the police force is a part of the 
army and under the control of the president. 

The stoves of the Bolivian Indians are curious things. A 
hole is dug in the ground about eighteen inches deep and a 
foot square, and over this is built a roof of clay with holes of 
different sizes to receive the various cooking pots. Roasting 
is done on spits passed through the holes, so that the meat 
comes out very much smoked unless great care is taken to 
have only live coals at the bottom of the oven. 

The national dish, and the common food of the masses, is 
"chupe," a sort of first cousin to the Irish stew. It is a con 
glomerate, composed of irregular constituents from the animal 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 319 

and vegetable kingdoms — a mess of mutton and such other 
meats as are available : chicken, fish, fruits, potatoes, carrots, 
barley, corn, rice, onions, yams, etc., chopped up, highly sea- 
soned with peppers and herbs, and stewed to a consistency of 
porridge. What happens to be left from one meal simmers in 
the pot until the next. If the fire goes out the "chupe" is 
allowed to cool, but it is warmed up again and a new supply 
of the ingredients added to the waterlogged and greasy stuff 
for the next meal. In the cities, at the hotels and restaurants 
where there are French or Swiss cooks, the "chupe" is savory 
and palatable, but the farther you go from the centers of civ- 
ilization the worse it gets. One eats it at first under protest, 
then from necessity, and only to escape starvation ; but finally 
the stomach rebels and you limit your diet to boiled eggs and 
fruit, which are usually to be obtained ; but the experienced 
traveler always takes canned meat and bread with him. 

Sucre is a very old town, and was founded several centuries 
before the conquest. It was formerly known as Chuquisaca, 
but in 1824 it was christened in honor of General Sucre, one 
of the heroes of the war of independence. 

The most imposing edifice, and the most interesting 
object in Sucre, is the Church of Nuestra Senora de la Guade- 
lupe, which stands at one corner of the principal plaza, and 
has antique twisted columns like those in the mosque at Cor- 
dova, which are the admiration of artists and architects. Over 
the entrance stands a marble image of the Virgin, presented 
by Charles V. of Spain, and transported from the seacoast at 
an enormous cost. This church was over forty years in course 
of erection, hundreds of men being constantly employed, and 
they tell a curious story concerning the method used which I 
have also heard of in other places. Owing to the difficulty of 
obtaining timber for derricks and platforms, the earth was 
banked up against the walls inside and outside as fast as a tier 
of stone was laid, and upon this inclined plane the stones for 
the next tier were rolled into their places. Then more earth 
was thrown on, and the process repeated until the roof was 
placed, when the church was immersed in a mountain of dirt. 
It is said to have taken thirteen years to clear the inside of 



320 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the building, as the earth could only be taken out through the 
narrow windows and doors. 

At one time the church of Guadelupe was the wealthiest in 
South America, richer even than that at Copocobana. Held 
by trustees in the name of "Our Lady of Guadelupe" were 
several of the richest mines of the country and some of the 
largest haciendas. But most of this property has been lost in 
one way or another, and the mines have been abandoned. 
During flush times the church treasury was the receptacle of 
an enormous amount of jewels, votive offerings and legacies 
from pious devotees, but these also have been stolen by the 
officers of the government and by revolutionary leaders, until 
the only object of great value that remains is an image of the 
Virgin made of silver, life size and adorned with jewels of 
great price. One pearl, about the size of a pigeon's egg, has 
been set in a fashion to represent a greyhound, probably 
because the donor was preserved from an attack from such an 
animal. Another votive offering heavily set with jewels rep- 
resents an ox; another a frog. The robes of the figure gleam 
with rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, pearls and other 
stones of lesser value. The image is valued at $2,000,000, and 
up to the present time has been kept sacred from the rapa- 
cious adventurers who have sought or occupied the presiden- 
tial chair. On high festivals it is carried about the streets 
under a canopy, attended by the president of the republic and 
the civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities. 

There were formerly in the church of Guadelupe twenty- 
four massive silver candelabras, each weighing 20,000 ounces, 
but President Melgarejo, being pressed for funds to carry on 
the government some years ago, seized and melted down all 
but two, which remain to testify to the splendor of the church 
in days when the mines of Bolivia were flowing silver. The 
candelabras are eight feet high, the arms are five feet from 
tip to tip, and the trunk is as large as a man's body. There 
is nothing to compare with them except two candlesticks in 
the cathedral at Seville, Spain. 

Sucre has not changed for 200 years. It is said that no 
new building has been erected within the limits of the city for 



Cfl 




POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 321 

more than a century, and apparently none has been repaired. 
It is the seat of the aristocracy of Bolivia, and was formerly 
one of the richest communities in all the world, but the depres- 
sion of the mining interests has cut down the incomes of its 
most prominent citizens, and their refusal to adopt modern 
ideas and accept modern innovations has been their ruin. 
The old families still spend considerable of their time in Paris, 
and send their children to France and Spain to be educated. 
They buy expensive pictures and jewels, and keep in touch 
with art and literature, but have a stubborn aversion to mod- 
ern methods of doing business and a violent hatred of for- 
eigners. 

Bolivia is the third silver producing country in the world, 
notwithstanding her isolated position, her primitive processes 
and lack of transportation facilities. The United States and 
Mexico alone exceed Bolivia in the amount of silver bullion 
produced, and an official report shows that only 134 mines are 
in operation with more than 10,000 that have been abandoned 
because they are unable to compete with those in other coun- 
tries which are more accessible and are provided with improved 
machinery. 

The province of Potosi has suffered more than any other 
part of the country from this cause. More than 2,000 mines 
have been abandoned in that great silver belt, where the vast 
operations during the last three centuries represent results that 
are almost incredible and were achieved by the enforced and 
unpaid labor of the Indians. The records kept at Potosi, 
where the mint has been located in the same picturesque old 
building for 300 years, show that between 1545, when the 
records begin, and 1824, when they close with the declaration 
of independence, the mines of Bolivia produced $3,406,366,035 
in silver, and that the mountain of Potosi alone, which is a 
mass of silver ore, during the same period contributed 
$1,532,948,142 to the wealth and glory of Spain. From 1800 
to 1897 the product of the mountain of Potosi amounted to 
$ I ,3 86 ,95 I >*5 8 > making a total of $2,919,899,400 from that 
single deposit. 

This seems incredible, but it is probably below rather than 



322 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

above the truth, because the statistics are based upon the offi- 
cial returns of the tax of 20 per cent on the gross output which 
was annually collected for the Spanish crown. Human nature 
was the same then as now, and in those days people were just 
as reluctant to pay taxes. 

Gold, unlike silver, is not subject to export duty, therefore 
there is no means of ascertaining the value of the product, but 
it is comparatively small and even infinitesimal when meas- 
ured with the output of the mines during the days of the Inca 
dynasty. Prior to the Spanish conquest, in 1532, gold was a 
sacred metal, consecrated to the chief deity, the sun. It did 
not enter into commerce, and was sought not for gain, but for 
the adornment of the temples, the palaces and the sacred 
vestments of the priesthood and the royal household. The 
traditions of the Indians agree that the northwestern prov- 
inces of Bolivia were the principal sources of the gold that 
excited the cupidity of the Spaniards, and relate that once in 
every three months a trail of llamas came to Cuzco from that 
direction bearing bladders full of gold dust as offerings or 
tribute to the king. These bladders, called "rosques, " are 
still used by the Indians for transporting gold. 

The traces of their prehistoric work and the remnants of 
their rude mining instruments are still found in several parts 
of Bolivia, and although with their primitive processes they 
were unable to extract metal from quartz, and were compelled 
to content themselves with working the placer deposits, history 
furnishes no parallel for the accumulation of treasure that was 
found in possession of the Incas at the time of the conquest. 
And, in revenge for the sacking of their cities and temples, 
the assassination of their sovereign and the destruction of their 
empire by the Spaniards in their insatiable greed, the Indians 
destroyed and concealed the mines from which the treasure 
came. 

Gold mining is therefore somewhat limited in Bolivia 
to-day, and with a few exceptions is carried on only by the 
Indians in a small way. The total product probably does not 
exceed $100,000 a year, and most of the dust is brought to the 
"rescates de oro," or annual sales of gold, which take place at 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 323 

several of the mining centers, when buyers from Sucre and La 
Paz meet the Indian miners and bid for their dust. 

Col. Thomas H. Anderson, of Washington, D. C, who was 
minister to Bolivia under the Harrison administration, attended 
one of these "rescates de oro" at the village of Chuchulaya, 
where it has been held annually for more than two centuries, 
and he says that there were at least 3,000 Indians present, each 
with a little gold dust which they were selling to the specu- 
lators for 28 bolivianos, or about $16, an ounce. 

Fabulous stories are told of the output of some of the mines 
that were abandoned centuries ago, but are still supposed to 
contain large deposits. A number of prospectors, mostly from 
the United States, are now looking up properties in Bolivia, 
and it is the hope of each to stumble upon the ancient wash- 
ings of the Incas. 

The hostility of the Indians makes gold hunting in Bolivia 
rather dangerous, and, although no actual violence has been 
committed thus far, some of the prospectors tell of very 
exciting experiences in the interior. 

The tax on silver, which is 80 cents a marc, Bolivian money, 
or about 37^ cents in American gold, is farmed out by the 
government and sold at auction to the highest bidder in Octo- 
ber every year. No record is published of the exact amount 
collected, but the bonus paid the government last year was 
based upon an estimated production of $11,000,000. More 
than one-half of that was produced by the famous Huanchaca 
mine at Oruro, owned by ex-President Anecito Arce. This is 
claimed to be the most profitable silver mine in the world at 
present, and is the only one in Bolivia that is fitted with mod- 
ern machinery. Its owners have built a railway from Oruro 
to Antafogasta, on the Pacific coast, for the purpose of getting 
their ores and bullion to market. Ores yielding 165 ounces of 
silver to the ton are shipped to Europe in bags, while those of 
lower grade down to fifty ounces are treated at the mines, and 
those carrying less than fifty ounces are rejected as worthless. 

It would amuse an American miner to witness the prim- 
itive methods that are used in this country. Most of the ore is 
carred from the mines in a blanket on the back of an Indian 



324 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

who climbs a notched pole to the top of the shaft, or is hauled 
up by hand in buckets made of cowhide. The ore is first 
passed through a crusher, separated by hand by Indian women 
and girls, and then milled with a "quimbalete," a large, 
smooth bowlder rocked back and forth over a flat bed of stone 
or cement upon which the metal has been spread. In some of 
the more progressive mines they have a "trapiche," which is 
a large wheel or roller of cut stone like those used in laying 
pavements. This is rolled back and forth upon a bed of stone, 
and crushes the ore that is spread beneath it. The crushed 
ore is then transferred to a sluicebox and water turned upon 
it. A mill of this kind can handle about two tons a day of 
twenty-four hours. 

The ore, having thus been milled and washed, is taken up 
by quicksilver and placed in a cast-iron pattern and pressed, 
which gives it form and expels a large percentage of the quick- 
silver. It is then placed in a retort, where the remaining 
quicksilver is expelled, leaving a porous mass of pure silver in 
the shape of a pineapple, which is known as "plata pina," or 
silver pineapple. 

Although the mountain of Potosi is by no means exhausted, 
and, according to the opinions of the experts, contains as much 
more silver as has been taken out, it is worked to only a limited 
extent, because the price of bullion is so low that it cannot 
compete with mines like Huanchaca, which has modern 
machinery and can send its ore and bullion to market by rail- 
way instead of on the back of a llama. Very few other mines 
pay expenses. 

Copper and tin are quite as plenty as silver and gold in 
Bolivia, and it is asserted that the tin deposits in Oruro and 
the copper deposits in La Paz are unsurpassed in the world, 
but they suffer from the same difficulties as the silver. It does 
not pay to work them in competition with other mines that 
have railway facilities and modern machinery. Tin ore is 
found at frequent intervals all over the plateaus of Bolivia, 
but the excessive freights to the Pacific coast, made necessary 
by the employment of llamas and pack mules, increase the 
cost of shipping the ore to such a degree as to retard develop- 



3 

b3 




POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 325 

ment and make it impossible to import suitable machinery. 
The copper mines often turn out ore containing from 80 to 
90 per cent of pure metal, and the average of the tin is 73 per 
cent. 

The mining laws of Bolivia are peculiar. "All minerals of 
whatever origin and however laid on the ground, whether on 
the surface or beneath the same, in any manner or form, 
belong originally to the state," says the statute. "For the 
purpose of this law the soil and the sub-soil are two different 
things altogether. Soil is the exterior coat or surface extend- 
ing downward only to such depths as may be reached by the 
work of the owner when engaged in agricultural pursuits or 
when paving or making foundations, or doing any other labor 
whatsoever different from mining. ' ' 

Under this law, therefore, if gold or silver is found upon 
the property of a private citizen it does not belong to him, but 
to the government, from whom it may be purchased by the 
finder or any one else to whom he may transfer his rights. It 
often happens, therefore, that haciendados find prospectors 
sinking shafts upon their land and digging up their soil with- 
out permission, and if they find anything of value the owner is 
perfectly helpless. The prospector goes to the nearest 
alcalde, files his claim, pays $15 and does enough work to 
entitle him to ownership. 

Potosi, the "city of silver," is 13,500 feet above tide water, 
2,000 feet higher than Leadville, and 1,000 feet nearer the sky 
than Lake Titicaca. It lies upon the breast of a most extraor- 
dinary mineralogical phenomenon known as "El Cerro de 
Potosi, ' ' which is literally a mountain of silver, and is pierced 
by a thousand shafts. Potosi was formerly a city of 200,000 
inhabitants, but the population is not more than 20,000 to-day, 
although 50,000 is claimed. Four-fifths of the buildings are 
unoccupied, and are in different stages of decay. Being so 
rich, Potosi has suffered from revolutions more than any other 
city in the Andes, for it has always been the object of conten- 
tion by revolutionary adventurers whose only ambition seemed 
to be to accumulate a fortune by any possible means, and most 
of the houses bear marks of the political warfare of which they 



326 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

have been silent but suffering witnesses. The streets are nar- 
row, the houses are built in the old-fashioned Spanish style, 
with heavy stone walls and roofs of red tile. In the interior 
of many of them are evidences of luxuriance in the shape of 
paintings and other works of art. Potosi is still the residence 
of several of the ancient aristocratic Spanish families who are 
now too poor to move and are dying amid the scenes of their 
former grandeur. 

The minister of the United States at La Paz has for many 
years represented the interests of the British government in 
Bolivia, whereby hangs a curious tale. During the reign of 
one of the several dictators who have ruled over that unhappy 
country since its separation from Spain, the British minister 
and his family were invited to dine at the palace where, to 
their astonishment, they were received by a notorious woman 
whose relations with the dictator were well understood. The 
British envoy retired from the palace with his wife and daugh- 
ter as soon as he recognized his hostess, and their places at the 
table were vacant. The other guests were not so fastidious. 
They remained throughout the entertainment, and afterwaids 
enjoyed a dance. The next morning the minister called upon 
the president and demanded an apology for inviting his wife 
and daughter to meet such a woman, which the president 
refused to give; and, when the woman learned the object of 
his visit, she furnished a practical illustration of the old adage 
that, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." At her 
instance, the president sent the minister his passports, and 
ordered him to leave the capital at once, sending a lieutenant 
and file of soldiers to escort him to the frontier. As he was 
passing out of the city, he expressed his indignation in such 
emphatic terms that the lieutenant took him out of the stage 
and made him mount a donkey with his face to its tail. In 
this way the envoy extraordinary of her British majesty left 
the capital of Bolivia jeered and hooted by a mob of natives. 
As Bolivia was too small a country for England to punish, 
Lord Salisbury allowed the insult to pass without retribution, 
but no minister or consul has ever been sent to Bolivia since, 
and it is not probable that one ever will be. 



POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN BOLIVIA 327 

Some years later, when President Arce visited London to 
negotiate a loan to pay for some internal improvements, he 
called at the foreign office with the hope of being able to 
restore relations, but the minister of state for foreign affairs 
told him politely that Her Majesty's government was not 
aware of the existence of such a country as Bolivia, and 
pointed to a map upon which it had been entirely effaced. 

Along in the fifties, a Scotch sailor, named Penny, deserted 
from a man-of-war on the west coast of South America, and 
found his way to the interior of Bolivia, where he worked as a 
miner and did odd jobs for a living. In the course of time he 
took up with an Indian woman, and after she had nursed him 
through a long and dangerous illness he married her to show 
his gratitude. She reciprocated his confidence, and affection 
by leading him to an ancient mine, which had been abandoned 
and partially filled at the time of the conquest in order to keep 
it from falling into the hands of the Spaniards. With the aid 
of his wife and a fellow countryman named Mackenzie, Penny 
cleaned out the rubbish and struck a vein of silver that made 
him a millionaire. The mine is still operated, and is one of 
the most profitable in South America. 

After having developed the property and organizing his 
affairs with Mackenzie as his superintendent, some years later, 
Penny returned to Scotland and purchased the estate near 
Aberdeen upon which his parents had lived as laborers. His 
Indian wife could neither read nor write, and could not speak 
or understand a word of English, but was habitually arrayed 
in silks and satins, and wore jewels that were the wonder of 
all the country around. Penny spent his money like a 
"Monte Cristo," and the fame of his philanthrophy will never 
be forgotten by the people of that region. He brought a son 
of Mackenzie to Scotland to be educated, and sent him to the 
best schools. He also adopted a nephew by the name of 
Craig, the son of a village parson, living near Aberdeen. 
Penny insisted that both should adopt his name, and, as he had 
no children of his own, and no prospects of any, promised to 
make them his heirs. 

When he died suddenly he left a will bequeathing his mines 



328 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and his millions to his wife, and commending to her care and 
generosity his two adopted sons, Craig and Mackenzie Penny. 
Shortly after Craig-Penny started for Bolivia with the 
widow, leaving Mackenzie, who was then about eighteen years 
old, in school. During the voyage, by some means, Craig 
induced Mrs. Penny to marry him, and when they arrived at 
Oruro he produced a marriage certificate, took charge of the 
property and dismissed the faithful Mackenzie,- who had been 
sole manager of the mine for many years. Then Mrs. Penny 
died under mysterious circumstances. Although her husband 
attempted to keep away the doctors and the priests, the old 
lady through a servant managed to send word to friends that 
she needed protection, and before her death declared that she 
had been poisoned. The scandal was hushed with money, 
and Penny lived like a lord on the profits of the mine of which 
he claimed to be the sole owner, but after a time young Mac- 
kenzie learned what had transpired in Bolivia, and started for 
Oruro to protect his rights. Being a British subject, he placed 
his claims in the hands of Thomas H. Anderson, United States 
minister to Bolivia, who was in charge of British interests, and 
the latter with the aid of Dr. Alonzo, recently president of 
Bolivia, endeavored to arrange an amicable settlement of the 
controversy, under which the two boys were to have equal 
shares in the mine. When Mr. Anderson returned to the 
United States at the end of his term of office he brought 
young Mackenzie Penny with him, in order that he might 
complete his education in Washington, but, after a time, when 
the boy returned to Bolivia, President Alonzo organized a 
syndicate to buy out both the heirs for $500,000 each. He 
now controls the mines and is paying the two heirs in install- 
ments, while both are drinking themselves to death at Anto- 
fogasta. 




j< / * 1 tf> f ¥ r ' / ' 



Side Entrance to Shrine at Copocabana, Bolivia. 



XXI 

COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF THE PATRON SAINT OF SOUTH 

AMERICA 

Not far from the island of Titicaca, toward the south, a 
narrow peninsula projects into the lake, at the point of which 
is a small town of great fame. It was the Mecca of the Incas, 
the residence of a famous idol and oracle, the scene of annual 
festivities which attract a large portion of the population, and 
the shrine of the patron saint of Bolivia. Here, in prehis- 
toric times, was the seat of a celebrated oracle, with an exten- 
sive group of temples and monasteries, and it was the place of 
assembly of all the princes, priests, warriors, notables of the 
empire, as well as the common people, for the spring festivals 
which took place in August every year. 

It must be remembered in this connection, as in all other 
references to agriculture, that the seasons south of the 
equator are the reverse of those in the northern zone. Here 
spring comes in September and the leaves wither and fall in 
April. 

The only ruins of importance which remain of the Incarial 
structures is a remarkable throne or platform upon the slope 
of a hill near Copocobana, which was evidently "the seat of 
the mighty. " Enormous rocks which protrude from the soil 
were utilized for a throne or platform from which the Incas or 
the priests must have addressed the people and witnessed the 
festival. It is a marvelous piece of stone-cutting, and there is 
nothing like it in either Bolivia or Peru. Some scientists hold 
that its age is greater than that of the Inca dynasty, and that 
it was the seat of judgment from which the early monarchs 
pronounced their decrees and proclaimed their edicts in the 
presence of the people. But however that may be, it is to-day 
one of the most interesting and extraordinary relics of an 
extinct civilization. 

3 2 9 



33© BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The diplomacy and the wisdom of the early catholic mis- 
sionaries is nowhere more strikingly illustrated than by the 
skill with which they won for their church the reverence of 
the aborigines. In following a contrary policy the protestants 
have made a great mistake. The catholics did not condemn or 
attempt to obliterate the native customs of the Indians, but 
with exceeding skill turned them into new channels and finally 
amalgamated the most important of them with the authorized 
festivals of their own church. Upon the ruins of the pagan 
temples, and with the same material of which they were built, 
they erected at Copocobana a magnificent edifice, one of the 
finest and most beautiful on the continent. They seated upon 
the throne of the oracle an image of the Mother of Christ, 
which is more renowned than any other effigy in America, 
and made her shrine the scene of annual festivals which call 
together the inhabitants of the entire Andean regions. 

Before the farmers begin to plow this inhospitable soil for 
their spring planting in the month of August, they come here 
from all over Bolivia and the interior of Peru to enjoy a holi- 
day, to renew acquaintance and to seek the blessing of their 
patron saint upon the labor of the coming year. The rites and 
ceremonies partake largely of those of the Incarial times. At 
the same time they have a religious significance and are con- 
ducted under the auspices of the monks of the Franciscan 
convent, who have the custody of the miraculous image and 
derive a large revenue from these annual gatherings. 

The festival at Copocobana, which lasts six days, is also a 
trading fair like that at Nijni Novgorod in Russia, the com- 
mercial spirit of the Indians manifesting itself in connection 
with their holiday pleasures and their religious ceremonials. 
Farmers, merchants and manufacturers take advantage of the 
gathering to sell their produce, and drive in llama trains 
laden with merchandise of all sorts for hundreds of miles. 
They erect booths in the plaza and along the highway. The 
people of the north exchange products with the people of the 
south, and the barter amounts to hundreds of thousands of 
dollars every year. 

Copocobana is not an attractive place, judged by our 



COPOCOB ANA— SHRINE OP PATRON SAINT 331 

standard. It sits upon a rocky slope fronting the west and 
without any green foliage or natural ornaments. The rugged 
and barren hills that surround it are repulsive. The unpainted 
houses of adobe that shelter the pilgrims, with their roofs of 
red tile, are not without a certain picturesqueness, and the dry 
fields of stubble inclosed by mud fences and interspersed with 
large lichen-covered bowlders are a novelty to those who dwell 
in green lands. The landing place is a pier of stone, and from 
it a narrow crooked lane, bordered by high stone fences, leads 
to the village. The fields on either side are filled with animals 
— mules, horses, burros, and llamas — which have brought in 
the pilgrims from all directions, and find temporary pasture 
until their return. Every structure is a hotel during the 
season of the fiesta, in which they pack the people as closely 
as possible. Near the temple are several enormous tambos, 
or lodging houses, erected and maintained by the monks for 
the accommodation of the public, and they are said to be a 
close imitation of similar establishments that were maintained 
by the Incas in different parts of the country for the same 
purpose. 

These tambos accommodate several hundred people. 
They surround a large patio, in which are fountains for pure 
water drinking, cooking and bathing purposes. The upper 
floors are divided into small cells and apartments fairly well 
furnished for the accommodation of the wealthier classes. 
Most of them bring their own bedding. The ground floor is 
cut up into large rooms for the accommodation of the poor, 
who supply their own food and furniture and pay a small fee 
for the shelter. There are large refectories in which those 
who have money may obtain cazuela or chupe, the national 
dishes of the country, that resemble an Irish stew, and on the 
upper floor regular meals are served to the first-class boarders. 

The monasteries during the festival season also accommo- 
date large numbers of people. They were formerly handsome 
buildings, but are in a state of decay. 

Under a stately dome are three remarkable crosses, mono- 
liths of different-colored marble, about thirty feet high, before 
which are always found groups of kneeling natives. It is a 



332 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

picturesque as well as a pathetic sight, for the devotees must 
say a certain number of prayers or pray for a certain time at 
the foot of these crosses before they are permitted to enter the 
presence of the Virgin, whose shrine occupies the chief altar 
of the sanctuary. Upon the pedestals are numerous votive 
offerings, skulls and other objects of religious significance 
which have been placed there by the pilgrims. 

In the center of the town is a large plaza, the church occu- 
pying one side and the other three sides being devoted to 
shops. Along the walls of the church is a line of eating 
booths, where cooking and the sale of food are conducted 
upon a primitive plan that is more interesting than appetizing. 
Around the three sides of the plaza are rows of booths for the 
sale of merchandise, food, sweetmeats and articles which have 
been blessed by the priests. 

Every pilgrim who visits Copocobana carries away a badge, 
which is regarded with envy by those who have not been so 
fortunate as to attend the festival. It consists of a little sprig 
of white artificial flowers and is worn in the hat or upon the 
breast, and wherever you see any person with such an orna- 
ment you may know that he has attended the festival. 

Squatting upon the ground in the center of the plaza are 
long rows of silent, solemn-faced women, whose nimble fingers 
are always busy knitting or spinning wool with the rucca, a 
peculiar implement which is forever in their hands. They sit 
for hours silent and abstracted. 

The great church, which was built in the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, must have been a beautiful structure 
when it was new, and even in its present state of decay and 
neglect it is imposing and attractive. The wood carving is 
abundant and remarkable. The altar is of hammered silver, 
28 feet high and 18 feet across; the pictures are said to be 
valuable examples of the early masters brought over by the 
Franciscan monks from Spain. It is easy to see that several 
of them are of unusual merit, but the canvas is so discolored 
and the church is so dark that is is difficult to identify them. 

The floor is covered with matting made of braided barley 
straw, and groups of hooded women are always kneeling 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 333 

before shrines that are embellished with artificial flowers. 
Before each altar is a long table with tin receptacles for can- 
dles, the smallest offering that a poor penitent may make to 
her patron saint, and thousands of them are constantly burning 
during the festival week. Here and there is a pathetic evi- 
dence of penitence in the form of a cluster of wild flowers laid 
by the hand of some maiden upon the altar of the Holy 
Mother. Barefooted altar boys are going about, and priests 
are chanting masses in the various chapels. 

The image of the Virgin of Copocobana, the patron saint of 
Bolivia, stands upon an altar in a little chapel under the roof 
that is reached by a narrow winding stairway. The hollow 
places in the steps give mute testimony to the millions of 
penitent feet that have turned that way during the several 
centuries she has been enthroned here, and they have num- 
bered hundreds of thousands every year. We could not get 
near enough to the altar to observe the image closely, but it is 
said to be a remarkable piece of wood carving, and to bear an 
expression that has never been equaled by the carver's art. 
Every one in Bolivia testifies to the artistic merit of the execu- 
tion, which is said to have been the work of an ignorant Indian 
in the mountains whose soul and hands were guided by divine 
inspiration, and for whom the Blessed Virgin herself sat as a 
model. 

The story goes that this peon appeared at Potosi early in 
the seventeenth century bearing the image and offered to sell 
it to the parish priest, who turned him out without any atten- 
tion. The Indian made his way over the mountains to Sucre, 
with no better reception, and then performed a weary journey 
to La Paz over the snow-covered sierras, bearing his precious 
burden upon his back. There Franciscans from Spain who 
had recently established a monastery gave him a welcome that 
was no more cordial, their minds being occupied with matters 
of greater importance, but they allowed him to place the 
image in a store room and to sleep upon a pile of sheepskins 
in a corner of a patio. During the night a monk happened to 
enter the room where the image had been placed, and, to his 
amazement, found it surrounded by a brilliant light which pro- 



334 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

ceeded from its face. He slept late the next morning, and 
during- the day reported the phenomenon to the prior, who 
made an inquiry; but the peon had departed, no one knew 
whither. 

They traced him to Copocobana, and sent a messenger to 
call him back, but the monks at the latter place had recognized 
the merit of the carving and declined to surrender it. The 
superior of the order, who resided at La Paz, commanded them 
to send the image to him, and they put it in a boat, but as 
soon as they started across the lake a terrible storm came on 
and they were obliged to return. This was repeated as often 
as they attempted to take the image away, and finally the prior 
himself came over from La Paz to investigate the matter. 

The evidence of divine interposition was so apparent that 
he decided to leave the image at Copocobana in charge of a 
small colony of Franciscans that had been established there. 
Within a few years several remarkable miracles gave the effigy 
a sanctity and fame that extended throughout the entire 
country. Pilgrims came to offer adoration; the sick and the 
halt, the lame and the blind were healed by touching the fig- 
ure, and from the offerings at the altar this beautiful church 
was built. In time Copocobana became the most famous 
religious resort in all America, and for three centuries this 
virgin has been worshiped by millions. People have come 
from Mexico, from Central America, from all the republics of 
South America, and even from Europe, to seek her interposi- 
tion and pay vows made in time of danger or distress. The 
monks told us that there were many devotees from the United 
States also. 

The Virgin of Copocobana has an immense wardrobe, 
including many rare examples of embroidery and lace, and 
among her jewels is a ruby fully an inch and a half long by an 
inch in thickness, which, curiously enough, was presented by 
a Turk who spent some years in Bolivia. It is said to be one 
of the finest rubies in the world. She has also a valuable col- 
lection of pearls, said to be worth many thousands of dollars. 

The method of conferring the blessing of the Virgin is 
quite interesting. Each person who desires to receive it pays 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OP PATRON SAINT 335 

a sum of money to a monk who occupies an office in the clois- 
ter of the adjoining convent, and after payment is allowed to 
pass up the stairs into the little chapel, where the service is 
continuous during the time of the festival. Bearing a lighted 
candle in his hand he approaches the altar rail and kneels with 
the throng of worshipers. 

A bridal wreath is suspended by long strips of broad white 
ribbon in the center of the chapel. In a little gallery over the 
entrance is a band of music with a cabinet organ, two horns, 
a flute, a 'cello and a native instrument made of reeds. 
Behind the altar rail was a monk, assisted by two barefooted 
acolytes. As the devotees approached the altar the acolytes 
took the candles from their hands and placed them in a rack 
prepared for that purpose. They were then arranged, kneel- 
ing as closely together as possible, in front of the altar rail and 
a robe of white satin embroidered with designs in silver, which 
was formerly worn by the image, was spread over their heads. 
The officiating monk laid a sort of collarette upon the mantle 
and uttered some words. The robe was then lifted and the 
worshipers went away. 

This continues all day long during the festival season. The 
devotees were chiefly Indians from the mountains, barefooted 
and wearing ponchos. Among them were some well-dressed 
men and women with intelligent faces and devout demeanor. 
One of the engineers of the steamer Coya, a Peruvian from 
Puno, came to the altar while we were witnessing the cere- 
mony and slipped quickly away in the crowd after receiving 
the blessing. 

So far as I can learn the contribution is voluntary, and the 
amount depends upon the wealth and condition of the 
suppliant. 

The image is about three feet in height, and, with the 
exception of the face and hands, is covered by embroidered 
robes and decorations of gold and silver of elaborate and 
artistic designs. The crown of gold, heavily set with jewels, 
is an elaborate piece of work, and the halo of the same metal 
at least a foot in diameter is encircled by ten diamond stars. 
In her hand the Virgin holds a golden candlestick, and her 



336 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

arm supports a basket of gold filigree work which is said to be 
filled with costly jewels. The buckle of her belt is a cluster 
of large diamonds, and her robe sparkles with other gems. 

A celebration of the feast of the Asuncion of the Virgin 
occurred in the plaza in front of the Church of the Asuncion 
while we were at La Paz. It is one of the most popular festi- 
vals in the calendar and called in from the country several 
thousand Indians, who took possession of the town from noon 
of the day preceding the anniversary until toward night of the 
day following. 

During the afternoon and evening before the feast the 
peons began to come into town in groups of from five to forty, 
generally driving a bunch of burros or llamas laden with the 
products of their industry to sell in the market place. Every- 
body came, young and old, infants slung in shawls over the 
backs of their mothers, and poor, decrepit old creatures that 
were bent and haggard with age. The first comers took pos- 
session of the plaza in front of the church and the streets that 
approached it, and spread out their wares on the pavement. 
Others produced tables and stands and booths from some mys- 
terious quarter and decorated them with bright-colored mus- 
lins, festoons of tissue paper and artificial flowers for the sale 
of food and chicha and raw alcohol, which is the favorite drink 
of the Bolivian Indians and is consumed in large quantities. 
They want something that will take hold of their vitals, which 
seem to be made of leather, and are as tough as the india 
rubber of their forests. 

That night there was a good deal of carousing and some 
preliminary ceremonies which we witnessed with great inter- 
est, although we could not understand their significance. Most 
of the people who came from the country slept on the pave- 
ments in the open air with their ponchos wrapped around them 
and their heads and faces enfolded in many wraps, while their 
bare feet and legs, according to habit, were exposed to the 
freezing atmosphere. 

In the morning everybody went to church. In order to 
accommodate the enormous crowds the regular priest of the 
parish was assisted by several monks from a neighboring mon- 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 337 

astery, and one mass succeeded another from daylight until 
noon. The Indians were very devout in their demeanor. 
They knelt on the stone floor through the service with bowed 
heads and clasped hands, and expressions of adoration on 
their faces. It was a solemn and impressive spectacle. Each 
worshiper threw into the plate a contribution, large or small, 
according to his means, although the most of them belonged in 
other parishes, where they support the priests and pay fees 
much larger in proportion than the customary contributions to 
religious causes in more civilized countries. 

Along about 2 o'clock in the afternoon began the dances 
and other ceremonies which have been inherited from the 
days of the Incas and are said to be of serious significance, 
like the ghost dances of the Sioux, the corn dance of the 
Navajoes, the snake dance of the Moquis, the sun dance of 
the Crows, and other similar rites practiced by the red men of 
North America. Professor Bandelier, who has been studying 
the ethnology of the Aymara race for several years, says that 
these dances have a profound hidden meaning which is fully un- 
derstood only by the leaders and head men, but is appreciated 
to a greater or less degree by the ignorant and even the children. 

Each clan contributed a group of professional dancers who 
had been trained for that duty, and were adorned with masks 
and costumes that were often hideous and grotesque. Some 
of the men were dressed in the garb of women, some repre- 
sented demons and animals of the forest and the mountains. 
One was clad in robes that were intended to reproduce those 
worn by their former sovereigns, the Incas ; others wore imi- 
tations of the vestments of the priests that attended the tem- 
ples in prehistoric times. Some were dressed like the bushmen 
of Africa; two or three carried upon their heads enormous 
bonnets made of the brilliant plumage of the birds of the 
Amazon, and several wore tunics of gorgeous birds' skins 
stitched together, with the claws and teeth of animals in 
strings about their necks. There was a good deal of silver 
and brass in their ornaments, and some of the embroideries 
were of artistic design. It would take columns to describe the 
costumes accurately were it possible to do so. 



338 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Each group of dancers was attended by a band of musi- 
cians playing their native instruments. There were modern 
drums, imported from Europe, but more of native manufac- 
ture made of hollow segments of trees and covered with goat 
skins; native guitars and mandolins, rude pipes of bamboo, 
and long trumpets of reeds. There was no harmony or mel- 
ody in their music, and it was all in the minor key ; but the 
airs were easily distinguished because they were few in num- 
ber and were so frequently repeated. Those who were not 
singing or dancing kept up a continuous chant in dreary 
monotones and the leaders moved among them gesticulating 
violently with their heads and arms. 

At intervals the music and motion would cease and the per- 
formers would refresh themselves with copious draughts of 
chicha and alcohol. The dancing and drinking continued all 
the afternoon, and far into the night, until everybody was in 
a distressing state of intoxication, the pavement was covered 
with bodies of men and women who were unconscious from 
drink and fatigue, and the remainder were howling in the 
streets. 

An interesting character frequently met with in the Andes 
is the callaguayas, or Indian doctor, as he is familiarly known 
to the people. You find him everywhere, resting on the 
benches in the plazas in the city, tramping over the mountain 
trails, sunning himself against the wall of a cabin by the rail- 
way station, drinking chicha in the market place, inspecting 
cattle in the corral of the hacienda, and curing the sick peons 
in their mud huts. You find him, too, in the railway cars and 
among the deck passengers on the coast steamers, where he 
pays his way by practicing his profession. With no wardrobe 
but the suit he wears and a bright-colored poncho, he travels 
barefooted from the Isthmus of Panama to the Straits of 
Magellan, carrying upon his back a pack filled with dried herbs 
done up in neat paper packages, cheap jewelry, pocket hand- 
kerchiefs and ribbons, watches and other articles for personal 
adornment, knives, forks and spoons, scissors, small mirrors, 
and sometimes combs and brushes and other merchandise, 
which he sells to the people for cash, or trades for eggs and 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 339 

poultry, chocolate beans or cocoa, the same to be exchanged 
at the next town for more portable property. 

He is not only trader, but tinker, and is as skillful as a 
Yankee in mending all sorts of broken articles. If there hap- 
pens to be a clock that won't go or a leaky tin pan, or a broken 
piece of crockery he mends it. He tells fortunes, interprets 
signs and omens, prepares love philters, gives advice to people 
in trouble, and from long experience and a thorough knowl- 
edge of human nature, together with a reputation for superior 
natural wisdom, he is usually able to do efficient service in the 
most delicate matters. He is a conjuror and a magician, and 
does all sorts of tricks by sleight-of-hand. He relieves persons 
and animals that are bewitched; he sings sentimental and 
patriotic songs, and improvises to suit occasions, like the min- 
strels that Sir Walter Scott tells us about, and the troubadours 
of ancient Spain, but these are only incidental diversions to 
occupy time and increase his popularity and his income. 
His chief business is that of a physician both for mental 
and physical ailments and for both man and beast. If a 
cow or a donkey is sick he serves as a veterinary surgeon; 
if distemper invades the llamas or foot-rot the sheep he has 
remedies that are effective, and the natives depend upon 
these wandering Arabs of the Andes to cure them of all 
diseases. His knowledge of botany is as mysterious as it 
is comprehensive, and the most astonishing stories are told 
of his cures. 

Mr. Meier, the United States consul at Mollendo, says that 
some years ago a friend of his in Lima was lying at the point 
of death with a disease which baffled physicians who brought 
diplomas from the medical schools of Paris and Vienna. One 
evening, after a consultation, two of them stood talking of the 
case at the sick man's door without noticing a humble bare- 
footed Indian who leaned against the wall. As they departed 
the Indian entered the patio and asked to see the sick man. 
The family referred him to the attending physician, who, 
amazed at his audacity, exclaimed : 

"What do you know about a disease that puzzles the best 
physicians in Lima?" 



34© BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

"I have herbs that will cure everything," said the calla- 
guayas. 

The doctor smiled in scorn, and turned away. The Indian 
opened his pack, unfolded a little paper and handed a single 
leaf to the physician, asking him to smell it. As the doctor 
did so his nose began to bleed, and he was unable to stop the 
hemorrhage. With stolid composure the Indian stood by, and 
after a time handed another leaf to the doctor, saying: 

' '" If you will put that to your nose the bleeding will stop. ' ' 

The result was what he promised, and the physician began 
to question the Indian as to the nature and origin of the herb. 
Then, as a desperate resort, he described his patient's symp- 
toms and asked if the callaguayas had any remedies that would 
suit the case. The Indian produced his stock of herbs, selected 
what he thought was necessary, brewed a tea and gave it to 
the sick man, who soon recovered. 

Other stories of a similar sort are told in the interior and 
the American miners in the mountains of Peru and Bolivia, 
who are often afflicted with climatic fevers, have the greatest 
confidence in the efficacy of the remedies and the skill with 
which they are administered by these migratory medicine men. 
Their botanical knowledge, however, has never been fathomed 
by science. They preserve the greatest secrecy concerning 
the herbs they carry in their pack and the source from which 
they obtain them. 

Nearly all the callaguayas come from the province of Mu- 
naecas, and their headquarters is at the town of Curva, in the 
heart of the Andes, in the province of La Paz. The natives 
call them "Sons of Santiago" — Saint James — who is the patron 
saint of Bolivia. Although they usually confine their opera- 
tions to South America, they have been known to go to Cen- 
tral America, Mexico and even to Europe, and a friend of 
mine here says that some years ago he found a callaguayas 
from the town of Curva kneeling beside him in a church at 
Rome. There were two others in the party, and they told 
him that they had traveled two years, practicing their profes- 
sion with great success, in Spain, France and Italy. 

The origin of the callaguayas is the subject of conjecture, 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 341 

but it is certain that he is a relic of Inca times, when the sov- 
ereigns had medical men to minister to their ills and minstrels 
to furnish entertainment for their court. They had jesters 
and conjurors like the kings and feudal lords of the middle 
ages, whose feats, as reported by the Spanish invaders, were 
unsurpassed by the magicians of Egypt and other oriental 
nations. 

It was one of the fixed laws of the Inca nation, which with 
many others prevails to the present day, that a son should fol- 
low the profession of his father, and it is not improbable that 
the callaguayas have inherited their knowledge of botany and 
materia medica from their ancestors in prehistoric times. 
There is a sort of Masonry or guild among them, coming as 
they do from the same province, and in the desolate moun- 
tains they maintain for mutual protection huts in which they 
can find shelter from cold and storms. A circle of stones eight 
or ten feet in diameter is first laid by way of foundation to a 
height of five or six feet, banked up on the outside with earth 
and thatched with straw and rushes, which are weighed down 
against the wind by stones. In these huts, which are found 
along trails that are far from human habitations, the wander- 
ing callaguayas seeks shelter and makes himself as comfortable 
as possible. He carries in his pack a little jerked beef, called 
tosajo, parched corn, barley meal, beans and coca, and makes 
use of the ever-present fuel, the llama dung which is found 
along all over the mountains, and a low shrub like the grease- 
wood of our western plains, called sin decaspi (the wood that 
burns), which is full of resin and burns like a pine knot for a 
few moments. 

The natives have so much faith in the skill of the calla- 
guayas that when he pronounces a sick man beyond recovery 
they abandon all further attempts to cure him, give him little 
food or care and compel him to spend the remaining hours of 
his miserable existence listening to messages which they want 
him to carry to friends who have preceded him to the other 
world. In some of the tribes in the interior of the country and 
even along the seacoast it is their custom to put out of misery 
people who have been pronounced fatally ill. There is a man 



342 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

appointed expressly for this purpose, an executioner of unfor- 
tunates, who dispatches them by pressing his knees upon their 
breasts until they are unable to breathe. 

In addition to his other manifold occupations a callaguayas is 
a sort of traveling postoffice and newspaper. He knows every- 
body, and as he travels from village to village through the 
mountains he carries messages between friends and brings the 
answer upon his return trip, although it may be months before 
he comes again. He bears gifts and takes charge of small 
packages, for which he receives a fee, and his arrival in an 
isolated pueblo is as welcome as a bundle of letters by people 
who are far away from home, for he relates all the interesting 
gossip he learned on his journey. 

There is no question of the resources of Bolivia. George 
Earl Church, the famous American engineer, who made a 
thorough exploration of the country several years ago, summed 
up his observations in these words: "The mountains are 
weighted down with silver, copper, tin and other metals, and 
the people are gazing upon a wealth sufficient to pay the 
national debts of the world, and yet they are unavailable for 
lack of means of communication. There is abundant evidence 
that not a river carries its waters from Bolivia to the Amazon 
but washes auriferous deposits as rich as any in California or 
Australia, and for lack of power to take machinery to them 
they did not produce to exceed ^60,000, when millions should 
have been produced. I found millions of sheep, llamas and 
alpacas browsing upon the mountain sides, and not a cargo of 
wool was exported ; vast herds of cattle roamed the plains, and 
yet an ox hide was worth scarcely more than a pound of leather 
in the European market; hundreds of tons of the richest coffee 
in the world rotting on the bushes, and only about ten tons per 
annum were sent abroad as a rare delicacy ; abundant crops of 
sugar in the river districts were considered a misfortune by 
the planter, because there was no market; the valleys of 
Cochabamba were rich in cereal wealth, but the crop was 
unsalable when too great for home consumption; not a valley 
or mountain side but gave agricultural, medicinal and other 
products which command ready sale in any foreign market; 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 343 

sixty-five kinds of rare and beautiful cabinet woods stood 
untouched by man in the great virgin forests of the north 
and east." 

While the facilities for transportation have improved since 
the above was written and the departments of La Paz and 
Oruro now enjoy steam communication with the outside world, 
the remainder of Bolivia is as isolated as it was in the time of 
the Incas, her vast natural wealth is inaccessible and the great 
bulk of her products cannot be expoited profitably. 

The population of Bolivia is somewhere between 2,000,000 
and 3,000,000. There has not been a census since 1854, when 
the enumeration showed 634,345 whites and cholos, and 1,691,- 
781 Indians, a total of 2,326,126. The popular impression is 
that the total has decreased since that time, but the number of 
cholos has increased. They are the mulatto es of the country, 
the result of a mixture of white and Indian blood, and furnish 
the middle class, the mechanics, small shopkeepers and 
domestic servants. The preponderance of Indians, who are 
absolutely illiterate and have a strong aversion to education, 
makes improvement seem almost hopeless. The cholos prob- 
ably number 400,000 and there are not more than 150,000 
whites in the entire country. 

, There is a public-school system provided by the municipal- 
ities and the state under the supervision of a member of the 
cabinet. Education is free and compulsory; nevertheless, in 
1890, when the latest reports were published, there were only 
27,754 pupils reported out of a population of more than 2,000,- 
000, which does not promise much improvement for the next 
generation. For primary education for the common people 
there were only 493 schools in the entire territory of 784,554 
square miles, which is less than an average of ten for each 
province, and only 649 teachers and 24,244 pupils. There are 
five universities, in which 511 young men are studying law, 
105 are stud) T ing medicine, and 768 are studying theology, a 
total of 1,384 There are sixteen colleges and preparatory 
schools, with 2,126 students and ninety-one teachers. 

The language of the white people is Spanish, but in the 
fields, the markets and the workshops the Indian dialects are 



344 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

spoken, and most of the natives are familiar with the Quichua 
or Aymara languages, having acquired them in childhood from 
their nurses and servants. Those are the languages of the 
household, and not 10 per cent of the population can speak 
Spanish. 

The best parts of Bolivia — the most fertile soil and the rich- 
est stores of mineral wealth — are on the Atlantic slope. The 
western slopes are sandy deserts, which will produce abun- 
dantly when they can be reached by water. Between the 
ranges of mountains, the plateau, or great Andean basin, 
although it is the most thickly settled portion of the republic, 
is cold and barren, but on the eastern territories everything 
that nature has provided for the benefit of mankind is found 
in the greatest luxuriance. That part of the country, however, 
is inhabited by savage tribes of Beni Indians, who are hostile 
and retard its settlement. They are migratory and barbarous, 
they have no written language and no fixed homes. The 
Quicha and Aymara Indians live in villages, and their language 
is not only printed, but has a grammar and a dictionary, and 
portions of the holy scriptures have been printed in several of 
the dialects. 

Bolivia has no seaport on the Pacific Ocean. It formerly 
owned a long strip of the coast, which was stolen by Chile 
during the war of 1881. Chile has offered Bolivia a port at 
what is known as Victor Run, or Victor Gully, about eighteen 
miles south of Arica, where there is a good harbor and a valley 
that slopes gradually from the mountains to the sea, but the 
natural outlet of the country is the Amazon, and within that 
territory are over 3,000 miles of navigable waters, which might 
easily be opened to commerce but for the existence of rapids 
in the Madeira River at the northeastern boundary of the 
republic. In 1833 the government offered a reward of $20,000 
to the first person who reached Bolivia from the Atlantic Ocean 
by steamer by way of any river that runs from south to north, 
and $10,000 by way of any river which flows from north to 
south. That decree stimulated exploration and demonstrated 
that it was possible to reach the Atlantic by canoe via the 
Paraguay and Parana rivers, as well as the Amazon, but the 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 345 

prize was never applied for. The government has sent out 
several exploring parties, and several concessions have been 
granted for the construction of a railway around the rapids of 
the Madeira, but the undeveloped condition of the country, the 
inhospitable climate and the hostility of the Indians have pre- 
vented the investment of the large sum needed for that pur- 
pose. A considerable portion of the forest and agricultural 
products of Bolivia reach market by way of the Amazon — 
particularly coca, coffee and rubber — but it is carried on balsas 
and canoes to the foot of the rapids, where there is a town 
named San Antonio, the terminus of steam navigation on the 
Amazon, 700 miles from its mouth. 

The rubber forests of Bolivia are practically unlimited, and 
are a source of wealth much more easily reached and devel- 
oped than the mines. There is no gambling or risk in a rub- 
ber quinta, provided the owner can obtain labor and can send 
his product to market. The demand is unlimited and increas- 
ing every year, and the government of Bolivia or of Peru will 
sell unlimited areas of natural forests of rubber trees at a nom- 
inal price to any one who will develop them. The trees grow 
on the eastern slope of the Andes and in the warmer valleys, 
and the forests can be reached on muleback from La Paz, from 
the steamboat stations on Lake Titicaca, and also from the 
railway that runs from Puno to the north of Peru. 

The first step in starting a rubber plantation is to clear 
away the underbrush and cut out the dead trees, which is a 
task of great labor and difficulty, because the vegetation is 
dense and represents the growth of ages ; but when it is once 
done the property has increased in value a hundred fold, and 
the rest of the job is easy. Thereafter all that is necessary to 
do is to keep the ground clear, see that the trees have plenty 
of light and air, are free from parasites and are allowed to 
enjoy the food which nature has stored in the soil. Formerly, 
with that improvidence which seems so natural to mankind, 
the rubber trees were cut down in order to get the sap, but 
nowadays they are cultivated like an orchard, and science has 
demonstrated that good care will be repaid a thousand fold. 

The process of making rubber is much like that of making 



346 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

maple sugar. The trees are tapped when the sap begins to 
run, and the milk, as they call it, is boiled in a big kettle until 
it is reduced to its proper consistency. In some parts of 
Brazil the natives find a vine whose juice will cause the milk 
of the rubber tree to coagulate without the use of heat, but the 
common process is to "boil it down" with all its impurities 
and allow the manufacturer to refine it. 

It is admitted that the coffee grown in the Yungas Valley 
is the finest in the world, but very little of it reaches the mar- 
ket, and that is sold to epicures in France and Spain or sent as 
presents by people in Bolivia to their friends in Europe. The 
Yungas berry is very small — about half as large as that grown 
in Brazil and Central America — but it has great strength and 
a fine flavor. 

The most useful to mankind of all the natural products of 
South America is probably the familiar drug made from the 
bark of the quina tree, which was used by the Incas as a cure 
for fevers and malarial diseases. A Jesuit missionary discov- 
ered this fact and brought some of the bark to Lima, where its 
efficacy was demonstrated by the countess of Cinchon, whose 
husband was a viceroy of Peru in the early days of Spanish 
domination. She sent it to Spain as a remedy for fevers, and 
no drug mentioned in the dictionary has been consumed in 
larger quantities or has afforded greater relief to suffering 
humanity. It was originally known as Jesuit's bark, because 
it was brought to notice by those enterprising and inquisitive 
scouts of the church. It was more extensively advertised as 
Peruvian bark, but the botanical name is cinchona, in com- 
pliment to the fair lady who first sent it to civilization. Cin- 
chona is found all through the Andes, from the Argentine 
Republic to the Spanish main, but the supply was greatly 
diminished by the perversity of the Spaniards, who cut down 
the trees before they stripped them. That has been prohibited 
by law, and only a portion of the bark may be taken from the 
trunk of a tree each year, and not more than nature is able to 
replace. 

England, with that provident foresight which characterizes 
much of her political economy and colonial policy, several 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 347 

years ago sent . Mr. Spruce, the eminent botanist, to Peru. 
He made a large collection of cinchona plants, which were 
transplanted in Ceylon, India, Burma and other colonies of the 
east, where they have been since cultivated with great success, 
so that most of the world's supply now comes from the British 
possessions. During the last few years the Germans have 
taken hold of the trade in Bolivia, and are new cultivating it 
with their usual skill. Probably 6,500,000 trees have been set 
out in the last ten years by them. One man has put out at 
least 2,000,000 trees, and another nearly as many. The 
"quinales," as they are called, are still in their infancy, but 
are beginning to pay, and promise to be very profitable. The 
trees are just now large enough to lose a little of their bark, 
but they will soon be the source of a large supply. 

Coca is also cultivated in a similar way and promises equal 
profit. It was cultivated by the Incas in terraces on the moun- 
tain sides, which have been compared to the vineyards of Tus- 
cany and the holy land. It is a member of the flax family — a 
shrub that looks like the orange and bears a small white blos- 
som and bright green leaves. The leaves are plucked by 
women and children, dried in the sun very much as the 
Chinese prepare their tea, and then inclosed for export in 
green hides, which are sewed up with stout cord and rolled in 
the sun to dry. The shrinking of the hides presses the coca 
leaves into a compact mass such as you see in the warehouses 
of manufacturing druggists. The Indians of Bolivia have 
adopted this method as a form of torture, and sometimes sew 
their victims up in green hides in the same way. When the 
hide dries it shrinks and crushes the bones and flesh with the 
most excruciating agony. 

Nearly all the Indians of Bolivia and Peru chew coca, 
which is the strongest nerve tonic known, and under its influ- 
ence perform incredible labor and endure remarkable fatigue. 
The influence of moderate doses is stimulating to the nerves 
and to the muscular system. It also produces an intellectual 
excitement, sharpens the sight and hearing, increases the skill 
of the hands and awakens all the senses. But when taken in 
excess it is worse than opium or any other intoxicant. A 



348 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

"coquero" or coca drunkard cannot digest food, his taste is 
destroyed, and he loses the sense of smell. He can eat the 
most disgusting food and drink the most nauseating draughts 
without the slightest sensation, as the mucous membrane is 
paralyzed, the throat, the interior of the mouth and the tongue, 
as well as the palate, are in a state of insensibility. 
"Cocaismo," as the habitual use of coca is called, produces 
moral and intellectual degradation more rapidly than either 
opium or alcohol. It perverts human nature, and its tendency 
is to develop brutality and vice. The use of the drug by the 
Indians of Bolivia is said to be the cause of their vicious 
disposition. 

Used in moderation by the shepherds in the snowy pampas, 
by the arrerios who follow trains of llamas and donkeys over 
the mountain trails, by the toilers in the mines, and others 
whose labor is attended by privation and fatigue, and for its 
medicinal properties, which are well known, it is a great 
blessing. 

The Indians chew the ordinary dried leaf with potash made 
from the skins of potatoes, rolled into a little ball called an 
"acullico," which is chewed deliberately and retained in the 
mouth for twenty-five or thirty minutes. A little pouch, 
which every Indian wears around his neck or attached to his 
girdle to carry his supply is called a "chuspa. " By the mod- 
erate use of coca an Indian can pass several days and nights 
without food, and people often make journeys through the 
mountains with no other sustenance. 

The quinine plantations, or quinales, as they are called, 
which have been started in this country by the Germans, are 
usually found on rough and broken mountain sides and at alti- 
tudes of 3,000 or 4,000 feet above the sea. The trees will grow 
as high as 8,000 feet, but they flourish best at an elevation of 
about 4,000, for they require a great deal of sun, rain and wind 
to reach perfection. 

Most of the groves have been raised from the seed, which is 
gathered in the early summer months and planted in hot- 
houses. When the plants are about six inches high they are 
transplanted upon the hillsides, which have been cleared of 



COPOCOBANA— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 349 

underbrush and plowed up beforehand, so that the young roots 
can secure the benefit of all the moisture and plant food in the 
soil and the heat of the sun. For shelter they are partially 
covered with twigs, straw or other light stuff, which also 
serves to keep the moisture and heat in the ground. After 
about two years this shelter is raked off, the plants are care- 
fully inspected, and those which are not promising are replaced 
by new ones. The ground around them is kept clear of weeds, 
and the young trees are carefully trimmed twice a year. In 
five or six years the tree will have reached the height of 
twelve or fourteen feet, and its trunk will be straight and 
slender, with a diameter of about six inches. It resembles 
the orange tree in size and shape, and the peculiar gloss of 
its leaves. 

Two or three times a year three or four strips of bark 
about two inches wide and from two to eight feet long are cut 
from the trunk and thrown upon a paved yard to dry, where as 
the moisture evaporates they curl up like cinnamon. Within 
a year or so nature replaces the bark that has thus been 
stripped off, and the tree is stripped again in other places. 
As it grows older smaller strips can be taken from the stronger 
branches, and a mature tree will produce an annual average 
of about four pounds of bark. 

The bark dries in a few days, and is packed for shipment in 
rawhide bales. The most of it is shipped from Arica and 
Mollendo. 

The Indians regard the coca with extreme reverence. Von 
Tschudi, the Austrian scientist, who made a most thorough 
study of the ancient customs of the Incas, says: "During 
divine worship the priests chewed coca leaves, and unless they 
were supplied with them it was believed that the favor of the 
gods could not be propitiated. It was also deemed necessary 
that the supplicator for divine grace should approach the 
priests with an 'acullico' in his mouth. It was believed that 
any business undertaken without the benediction of coca leaves 
could not prosper, and to the shrub itself worship was ren- 
dered. During an interval of more than 300 years Christianity 
has not been able to subdue this deep-rooted idolatry, for 



35o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

everywhere we find traces of belief in the mysterious powers 
of this plant. The excavators in the mines of Cerro del Pasco 
throw chewed coca upon the hard veins of metal in the belief 
that it softens the ore and renders it more easy to work. The 
Indians even at the present time put coca leaves in the mouths 
of dead persons in order to secure them a favorable reception 
on their entrance into another world, and when a Peruvian on 
a journey falls in with a mummy, he, with timid reverence, 
presents to it some coca leaves as his pious offering." 

One of the scientific explorers who has been working up in 
this region told me of his experience with a coca chewer. "A 
man was employed by me," he said, "in very laborious dig- 
ging. During the five days and nights he was in my service 
he never tasted food and took only two hours' sleep each night, 
but at intervals of two hours and a half or three hours he 
repeatedly chewed about half an ounce of coca leaves and kept 
an 'acullico' continually in his mouth. I was constantly 
beside him, and therefore had the opportunity of closely 
observing him. The work for which I had engaged him being 
finished, he accompanied me on a two days' journey across the 
level ground. Though on foot, he kept the pace of my mule 
and halted only for the chaccar (chewing). On leaving me he 
declared that he would willingly engage himself again for the 
same amount of work, and that he would go through it with- 
out food if I would but allow him a sufficient supply of coca. 
The village priest assured me that this man was 62 years of 
age, and that he had never known him to be ill in his life. ' ' 

Driving in the country one day, I met upon the road a 
group of peons — a dozen or more. Two of them staggered 
along with a rail upon their shoulders. Hung from the rail 
was a hammock, and lying in the hammock was a man ill of 
fever, being carried six miles under a blistering heat in the 
middle of the day to the hospital. The only shelter he had 
from the sun was a woolen poncho thrown over the rail, which 
hung down on each side of him, and there he lay, with every 
breath of air kept from him, and that heavy poncho flopping 
in his fevered face. He was a man of large stature, and not 
an easy load, so that the men who carried him had to shift 



COPOCOBAN A— SHRINE OF PATRON SAINT 351 

their burden to the shoulders of others every few minutes. 
The change was attended with a great deal of jabbering and 
considerable excitement, but the sick man lay motionless, with 
his livid eyes fixed upon vacancy and a rosary in his hands. 

"Why don't you wait till the cool of the day to make the 
journey?" I asked. 

"Because the morning and the night air are bad for fever," 
was the reply. 

"Isn't there an ambulance you could get?" 

The men stared for a moment as if puzzled by the inquiry, 
then exchanged a few words in undertones. Finally one of 
them explained that they did not know what an ambulance 
was. 

I described one to them as they rested under the shade of 
a mango tree, and the leader remarked that such a vehicle 
would not be as good as a hammock because the roads were 
so rough, and I concluded he was right. 

There are few roads in South America and those are found 
in the neighborhood of the large cities. Nine-tenths of the 
interior transportation is done on the backs of donkeys, little 
patient burros so small and light that a man could lift a large 
one, yet they are the strongest beasts in the world in propor- 
tion to their size and can carry all that can be packed upon 
them. Their limbs are not larger than the arms of a child, 
and their hoofs are about the size of a base ball cut in half, 
but they will climb any mountain path that a man can scram- 
ble over, and are as enduring and patient as time itself. 

Two bags of coffee weighing 100 pounds each can be 
strapped on the saddle and then the owner will mount and 
ride upon the top of them with his legs hanging down each 
side of the donkey's nose. I have often seen two men, and 
occasionally three, on the back of a little beast that would not 
weigh more than any one of them, and it trotted along the 
road as cheerfully as a child going home from school. When 
they carry sugar cane they are loaded until you cannot see 
either their legs or neck, but only a little head with bright 
eyes and nodding ears sticking out from under a mountain of 
foliage. The natives strap a railroad rail to three or four 



352 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

donkeys and carry heavy timber upon them, using much 
ingenuity and skill in securing a proper balance, and fastening 
the load. 

But, as a usual thing the "mozos," as the drivers are 
called, are gentle and kind to their animals and not so abusive 
as men of other races. They carry a stick and often beat the 
load, or crack a whip violently if they have one, but you 
seldom see a donkey beaten. 

The horses mostly are tough little bronchos like those of 
Texas and Colorado, with great endurance and considerable 
speed. They will travel all day without food and water and 
the fashion the hackmen have of plunging through the narrow 
streets is said to be due to the inability of the animals to go 
slowly. No matter whether you are driving "by the job" or 
by the hour, the horses are kept constantly at the top of their 
speed and the rough stone pavements and constant apprehen- 
sion of collisions or other accidents robs a ride of most of its 
pleasure. 

The saddle horses are superb. They are trained to a gen- 
tle amble called the "trote de paseo," which is as comfortable 
as a cradle and so gentle that an experienced horseman can 
carry a full glass of water in his hand without spilling a drop. 
It is said that this "trote de paseo" is natural, that it is inbred 
in the horses, inherited from animals that were ridden in the 
early days when it was the fashion of the rider to sit upon a 
saddle cloth fringed all around with tassels of silver ; that the 
horses did not like to have these ornaments dangling against 
their legs and took a mincing gait so as to carry them with as 
little motion as possible. 

Horseback riding is common. Nearly every gentleman 
owns his saddle horse, although I have never seen a lady 
mounted except when traveling in the interior where there 
are no roads fit for carriages. As this is the condition of the 
greater part of the country the people are compelled to take 
to the saddle. 



XXII 
THE NITRATE DESERTS OP CHILE 

The first port of interest and importance south of Mol- 
lendo, where the railway to Bolivia terminates, is Arica, which 
is famous for several reasons. It was here that Hernando 
Pizarro built the vessels with which the conquistadores scoured 
the coast and carried the troops for the invasion of Chile. It 
was a city of importance at the time of the Spanish invasion — s 
of much greater importance than now — and the country back 
of it was densely populated with aborigines who cultivated 
tropical fruits and vegetables by means of irrigation. It is 
supposed to have been founded in the year 1250 by the Inca 
Tahuar Huacca. The oranges of Arica are famous up and 
down the coast, and the agricultural part of the territory that 
lies behind the range of forbidding hills is one of the most 
beautiful, fertile and prosperous on the coast. Near by, 
where the waves of the Pacific chase each other over a long, 
wide beach, is a vast cemetery of prehistoric date filled with 
the dead of centuries who were embalmed with great skill and 
care and whose bodies are preserved as perfectly as the mum- 
mies of Egypt. 

From Arica runs a great highway into the interior of Peru 
and Bolivia which was constructed by the Incas a thousand 
years ago and has been constantly used ever since. Caravans 
of mules, burrows and llamas are constantly passing up and 
down this ancient trail, carrying inward vast quantities of 
foreign merchandise and bringing out the products of the 
mines, forests and the pastures of the interior. This road, 
known as the "camino real," is about 240 miles long, from 
Tacna to La Paz. 

Near Arica is supposed to be the outlet of Lake Titicaca 
and Lake Popo, those mysterious bodies of water that lie 

353 



354 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

between the two ranges of the Andes. Although they drain 
a large area and receive the waters of many streams, some of 
which are navigable, these lakes have no visible outlet, but 
continue at about the same level the whole year around. It 
is believed that there is an immense subterranean river which 
passes under the mountains and the desert and finds its outlet 
in the ocean in the neighborhood of Arica. Scientists find 
many phenomena which seem to corroborate this opinion. 

This theory is confirmed by the fact that the peccajay, a 
small fish resembling the smelt, which abounds in the fresh 
waters of the mountains and in the two lakes named, can be 
caught in large numbers in the ocean near Arica, and nowhere 
else along the coast. The fishermen often find floating upon 
the surface of the sea, and among the driftwood on the beach, 
logs of wood and other vegetation peculiar to the highlands of 
Bolivia and Peru, but unknown within 150 miles of the coast. 

Arica has been the scene of several terrible catastrophes. 
The town has been destroyed by earthquakes several times, 
and August 13, 1868, it was almost washed away and nearly 
all of its inhabitants perished in a tidal wave which came with- 
out a warning and devastated the coast for 100 miles or more. 
Lying in the harbor were the United States men-of-war the 
Wateree and the Fredonia, which were on their way to San 
Francisco. A wave sixty feet high, which came sweeping in 
from the ocean, lifted them from their moorings and carried 
them over the roofs of the city about a mile inland. The 
Fredonia was dashed against a ledge of rocks and entirely 
destroyed, while the Wateree was left lying upon a level keel 
in the sand where she has remained ever since. Every soul 
on the former vessel was lost, but about half the officers and 
crew of the Wateree, who remained below decks, survived the 
deluge and escaped when the water receded. For many years 
the Wateree was used as a boarding house for the laborers 
employed upon the railway, but when that was completed the 
hulk was abandoned and has since been carried off bit by bit 
by the people for fuel and building material. All that remains 
of her now is a skeleton of iron in the midst of a desert about 
a mile from the beach and two miles or more from the city. 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 355 

All of the other shipping in the harbor was entirely destroyed 
and the town was almost wiped out of existence. 

On June 7, 1880, during the war between Chile and Peru, 
Arica was the scene of a furious battle and frightful massacre. 
At one end of the town is a promontory, with a precipice 
looking sheer downward 600 feet to the sea and sloping off at 
a steep grade to the plains behind. Upon this point the 
Peruvians had erected a powerful battery to defend the 
harbor, but the Chileans landed a force of 4,000 men through 
the surf a few miles below and during the night marched 
them along the beach toward Arica. When the sun rose the 
Peruvians on the Morro, as it is called, found themselves 
attacked in the rear, with no means of escape. Their guns, 
pointing in the opposite direction, were useless, as they had 
been planted so as to command the harbor only. They were 
short of small arms and ammunition, but made a desperate 
defense, and after a hand-to-hand contest that lasted less than 
an hour the Peruvian force was exterminated. The com- 
mander leaped over the precipice into the sea, and his body 
was crushed to a pulp among the rocks. Several hundred of 
his soldiers followed him, preferring to die that way than to 
have their throats cut by the Chileans. More were crowded 
over the precipice by the advancing enemy at the point of the 
bayonet, and for months afterward their bodies could be seen 
lying where they lodged upon the jutting rocks beyond the 
reach of human hands. It is asserted that 1,700 Peruvians 
were killed, which was the strength of the garrison, for no 
prisoners were taken. 

Upon the slope of the Morro, as it is approached from the 
south, and near its summit, where it can be seen for a long 
distance, is an inscription in whitewashed stones — -"Viva 
Battalion No. 4" — which was placed there by the victors to 
commemorate the tragedy. 

Just south of the Morro is a long, flat desert of shifting 
sands, in which innumerable bodies are buried. Interred 
with them are many interesting and curious implements, 
utensils and other articles of use and adornment, which, 
according to the theory of the Incas, would be useful to them 



356 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

in the hereafter. The Incas believed in the immortality of 
the soul and the influence and activity of disembodied spirits. 
Hence they buried with the dead their arms and implements, 
the tools of their trade and the ornaments they wore while 
living. 

Here also are found those curious phenomena known as 
"mummies' eyes," little hemispherical objects about the size 
of a seed onion, and made in concave films which fit so closely 
as to be imperceptible, but can be peeled off by the use of a 
knife or any sharp instrument. They are translucent and 
have a deep, rich amber tint, which, when polished, takes on 
a beautiful luster. But, notwithstanding their beauty, they 
are useless as jewels, because they are so sensitive to damp- 
ness and atmospherical changes, and, being composed of 
animal matter, cannot endure the climate of the northern zone. 

Although the natives believe them to be the natural eyes 
of the dead, scientists declare that they are the eyes of the 
squid or cuttle fish, which abound on this coast. It is their 
theory that in preserving the bodies the Incas removed the 
natural eye, which is the first part of the human system to 
decay after death, and, after removing the brains through the 
cavity, their emblamers substituted the eyes of the cuttlefish 
in order to give the face of the mummy a lifelike appearance. 
This, however, is only conjecture. 

Some years ago I brought a number of these mummies' 
eyes to New York and left them with Tiffany to be polished 
and mounted in gold for a necklace, but the work was aban- 
doned because the men who were employed in polishing them 
were seized with a mysterious illness, with symptoms of 
poisoning. A violent irritation appeared in their eyes, lips 
and nostrils and in some cases affected their throats, supposed 
to have been caused by dust inhaled from the "emery wheels 
used in the process. Fortunately they all recovered, but the 
work was not resumed. Portions of the eyes were analyzed 
and found to be composed of animal matter, with traces of 
saltpeter and unknown minerals, which were undoubtedly 
used by the Incas in preserving the dead. 

It is a popular delusion that it never rains on the west coast 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 357 

of South America, but the atmosphere is frequently saturated 
with a mist that penetrates everything and moistens the soil 
so as to cause vegetation to grow in sands that seem hopelessly 
barren. In 1892 heavy rains fell daily on the Peruvian coast 
for three months and caused great distress among the people, 
who were not prepared for it. The houses are not built for 
wet weather. The roofs of the dwellings of the common 
people are thatched with reeds and palm leaves, which afford 
no protection whatever and there is not one umbrella to each 
thousand miles of territory. 

The rains were the result of unprecedented phenomena. 
A strong north wind prevailed all winter and brought the 
moisture from the damp regions of the isthmus. From some 
cause unknown the currents of the ocean became reversed also 
and navigators who have spent their lives on this coast were 
thrown into consternation. The Humboldt current, which 
brings a stream of cold water from the antarctic circle that 
freshens the dry atmosphere and moderates the temperature 
of the tropics as the gulf stream moderates the cold of the 
North Atlantic, seemed to disappear for several months and 
nature indulged in the strangest freak ever known. Finally 
the regular course of things was resumed, but the cause of the 
phenomenon has never been explained. 

During the rains the desert that lies between the Andes 
and the ocean was covered with vegetation. Where for ages 
there had been nothing but drifting sand appeared meadows 
of nutritious grasses, and flowers and plants, some of them 
unknown, grew in great abundance, to the amazement of the 
people. Unfortunately there are few botanists in this part of 
the country, so that science derived little benefit from the 
phenomenon, but the vegetables, fruits and flowers were 
greatly enjoyed by the people. The flower that came in 
greatest abundance was the poppy. Where the seeds came 
from nobody knows, but the deserts were fairly ablaze with 
them. The most prolific vegetables were melons. The vines 
sprung up out of the sands with amazing rapidity, and when 
the rain ceased the fruit ripened in the sun and possessed a 
flavor that is said to have been extraordinary. 



358 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

The desert narrows as you go southward, the coast line 
becomes more rugged and bolder and the mountains come 
down to the sea. They rise like a great wall, 2,000, 3,000, 
4,000 and 5,000 feet abruptly from the water. Some of the 
peaks reach an elevation of 8,000 feet and they are all barren, 
sandy rocks or hard baked clay, without a vestige of verdure 
or a living thing. There is an occasional break in the chain, 
a canyon or cuedebra, as they call it here, or a sloping "pampa" 
that rises gradually instead of abruptly from the coast. 

At many of these places ports have been established on the 
beach for the convenience of commerce, and railways have 
been built to bring the products of the interior to market. 
There are a few good harbors, but the most important ports 
are open and dangerous roadsteds where the surf rolls in with 
mighty force at all times and often is so violent that neither 
freight nor passengers can land. It is an extraordinary fact 
and a commentary upon human selfishness that near by these 
places are sheltered coves and harbors at which shipping 
might be economically and conveniently accommodated, but 
they have not been utilized because the owners of the sur- 
rounding property and riparian rights demanded such exorbi- 
tant prices, or some real-estate syndicate was interested in 
another site. About the worst place on the entire coast is 
Antofagasta. It is not only bad but dangerous, and yet within 
a few miles to the northward is one of the best and safest 
harbors on the coast, the bay of Mejillones, which was not 
made the terminus of the railway to the interior because the 
people who owned the land where Antofagasta now stands 
had a "pull" with the engineers. 

The word "pampa" conveys to us the idea of a grassy 
plain covered with dandelions and daisies, browsing cattle, 
birds and butterflies. That is what they call a pampa in the 
Argentine Republic and Uraguay, but over on this side of 
the continent the term is used to describe a high plateau 
entirely lifeless, with no vegetation, no water, nothing but a 
burning sun and burning sand, and a heat that fills the 
atmosphere with vibrations and mirages. It is so hot that 
you can actually see the heat in the air. Probably the term 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 359 

was first applied as a joke, but it stuck to the object, and now 
all these awful deserts are labeled "pampas" on the map. But 
under the repulsive surface nature has stored untold mineral 
wealth. 

The nitrate ports along the coast look like western mining 
towns in the United States — wide streets inclosed by long 
rows of rudely-built one-story houses of Oregon lumber, 
usually roofed with galvanized iron. Many of them have a 
piazza on top, or a second roof to break the force of the sun, 
like the fly of a tent. They are equally uncomfortable and 
uncouth and the men who live in them have come here to 
struggle and starve and die in pursuit of that gilded phantom 
we call wealth. More has been done and dared for gold than 
for glory or the good of mankind, and the battles that have 
been fought with fortune on this coast have cost more lives 
and misery than any war against sin or wrong or in defense 
of justice and truth and liberty. A few have left this dreadful 
region millionaires, more with a modest competence, but the 
great majority have been doomed from the beginning and 
have fought a forlorn and useless fight, depriving themselves 
of comforts and enjoyments and cutting themselves off from 
kindred and home. Whatever they have gained has cost 
many times as much labor and privation as the same measure 
of reward in more comfortable climates. Every dollar that 
has ever been taken out of the nitrate regions by any one has 
been fully earned. 

The streets are dusty and the air is full of sand. It gets 
into your hair and eyebrows, into your ears and nostrils, you 
taste it on your tongue and feel its irritation in your throat 
and lungs. The sun is fierce and unrelenting and its rays, 
absorbed and reflected by the vast area of desert, keep the air 
at furnace heat night and day. At nightfall a purple haze 
falls over the city like a curtain, but is deprived of all artistic 
association when you find that it is nothing but dust suspended 
in the atmosphere. There is a surprising number of large 
shops, filled with an assortment of wares that ought to meet 
the requirements of all races and ages and tastes. There 
seems to be, however, an excessive proportion of brandy and 



360 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

other strong drinks, and we are reminded of the skipper who 
sent the sailor ashore for supplies and when the latter 
appeared with one loaf of bread and a dozen bottles of rum, 
the captain demanded, in an uproarious manner; what in 
thunder he expected to do with all that bread. The same 
inquiry suggests itself to my mind whenever I look into the 
window of a grocery shop in one of these nitrate towns. 

Next in abundance is canned stuff — beef, bacon and tongue 
from Chicago, condensed milk from Switzerland, macaroni 
from Italy, sardines from Sardinia, anchovies from Sicily, 
sausages from Germany, asparagus, petit pois and wines from 
France, jellies and jams from England, cheese from Holland, 
butter from Denmark, codfish from Norway and Sweden, oil 
and olives from Spain, tea from China and Japan, coffee from 
Brazil and Bolivia, caviar from Russia — thus the whole world 
panders to the appetites of the miners working in the nitrate 
desert, and they are willing to pay big prices for the gratifica- 
tion. This unnatural climate develops unnatural tastes. A 
friend tells me of two miners who, being flush, decided to 
indulge in a feast. They got a loaf of bread and two jars of 
pate* de fois gras for their dinner, a bottle of brandy for their 
beverage and two cans of condensed milk which they ate raw 
with spoons for dessert. This extraordinary banquet cost 
them $11 each in Chile money. 

As nothing is produced but metals in this region, every- 
thing to eat and drink and wear has to be brought from more 
favorable regions. There isn't a thing but sand and rock and 
the minerals that lie under it for hundreds of miles from this 
port. Hence there is a very large commerce. All printed 
goods and plain cottons are of British manufacture, the wool- 
ens and other wearing apparel come from Germany, silks and 
fancy articles from France. Iron and steel in infinite forms 
come chiefly from England, sugar from Peru and Germany, 
candles from Holland, rice from China through Hamburg and 
Liverpool, beef and flour from Chile, the better quality of 
knives, forks and spoons from England, the cheaper quality, 
which are more largely sold, from Germany, the bagging used 
in immense quantities for shipping the nitrate and ores from 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 361 

Great Britain, the machinery and oils, both lubricating and 
illuminating, come from the United States, the railway sup- 
plies from Belgium and Germany. It is a notable fact that 
nearly all the contracts for railway construction, bridges and 
so forth have gone to Belgians or Germans. Drugs and 
chemicals are mostly imported from England, boots and shoes 
from France, china, crockery, glassware and stationery from 
Germany, jewelry from Germany, Switzerland and France. 
The United States has not a tithe of the trade, for the mercan- 
tile business is monopolized by Europeans, who naturally buy 
their goods at home. The heavy importers and exporters of 
nitrate and the bankers are mostly Englishmen. Italians keep 
the groceries and drinking shops, while the Germans are in all 
branches of trade and more numerous than any other nation- 
ality. Occasionally you find an American mine-owner or 
dentist. 

The population is cosmopolitan and represents every race 
on earth. In some of the towns the foreigners outnumber 
the natives. 

This enormous commerce is conducted under great diffi- 
culties. There are no harbors and no docks, but a tremen- 
dous surf rolls half way around the world before it finally 
breaks into foam upon the beaches where these towns lie. 
Captain Marrow of the steamer Lautero says that Australia is 
their only breakwater. The steamships anchor a mile or so 
out in deep water and rock with an easy motion as the heavy 
swells pass under them. The passengers are lowered from 
the deck into lighters by a steam winch in chairs that are 
made from barrels, or scramble down a ladder and drop into a 
boat as the swell lifts it within reach. They are taken 
through the surf in the lighters with amazing skill by native 
boatmen, and there is seldom any accident. Captain Harris 
of the steamer Guatemala, who has been sailing up and down 
this coast for twenty-seven years, says that he never heard of 
a passenger being drowned or seriously injured. Sometimes 
a boat overturns through the recklessness of the oarsmen. 
They may perhaps be drunk or quarreling among themselves, 
and now and then you hear that one is drowned, but some- 



362 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

how or another they get their passengers though all right, 
although the latter occasionally are treated to exciting experi- 
ences. Not long ago, at Antofagasta, a tug being carelessly 
navigated exposed her broadside to the surf and was over- 
turned instantly. As she capsized the boiler exploded and the 
hulk was blown into fragments. All the five men who 
composed her crew were lost. 

The skill with which the natives handle the big barges is 
marvelous. There are no tugs to tow the lighters; all the 
work is done by hand. Two men will skull a barge carrying 
sixty or seventy tons of freight over the rough sea from ship 
to shore and guide it through the surf with ordinary oars 
without losing a package or shipping a drop of water. 

At Salavary, a Peruvian port, the beach is so shelving that 
the lighters cannot get to the shore, and, after grounding 
them, their passengers are lifted on the shoulders of the 
boatmen and carried "pig-a-back" to dryland; or they can 
have their choice, which is generally exercised by ladies, of 
climbing on to a chair that is fastened upon a sort of funeral 
bier and carried by four men. At some of the ports there are 
long moles extending beyond the surf, but the swell is so 
heavy that the lighters have to be moored to buoys at a con- 
siderable distance to prevent them from being jammed to 
pieces against the piles. In such cases passengers and freight 
are hoisted and lowered from and into the lighters in iron 
cages by a steam winch. Cattle and horses are transferred 
from the deck of the vessel to the lighters and from the 
lighters to the dock by a canvas sling which is passed around 
their bodies and attached to a hoisting chain. Formerly it 
was the custom to lift cattle by a noose around their horns, 
and this cruel practice still prevails in some of the ports, but 
in Chile it is not permitted nowadays. Some years ago the 
humane society procured the passage of a law by congress 
prohibiting it under a heavy penalty. Sheep are landed by 
means of a canvas chute which extends from the deck of the 
vessel into the lighter. The roustabouts grab the animals by 
the legs, toss them into it and they slide down in an instant. 
Freight is hoisted from the hold of the vessel by steam winches 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 363 

in large nets or spreads of canvas called hammocks, and on 
shore is handled in a similar manner. 

There are plenty of shipping facilities. At every one of 
the nitrate ports are long rows of big sailing vessels anchored 
in line like men-or-war, discharging cargoes of merchandise, 
and taking in cargoes of nitrate, saltpeter, copper, silver, 
sulphur, "borax and various other ores. They bring coal from 
Cardiff and Australia and from Mobile and Newport News to 
furnish motive power for the "officinas, " as the nitrate works 
are called, and the railways that connect them with the coast. 
They are monstrous fellows, mostly four and five masters, built 
of steel and usually carrying the English, German and Nor- 
wegian flags. Sometimes you see the stars and stripes floating 
from a masthead. It is a rare and welcome sight. The other 
day at Iquique we saw what was said to be the largest sailing 
vessel in the world but one. She was a Frenchman, painted 
gray, with black squares upon her sides like the portholes that 
used to appear in the frigates that did the sea fighting a 
century ago. She had six masts and spread several acres of 
canvas square rigged. She was fitted thoughout with electric 
lights, and steering gear, and her hatches were supplied with 
steam hoisting machinery which was capable of discharging 
sixty tons of freight an hour from each one of them. She can 
carry a cargo of 7,000 tons of wheat or coal or nitrate or any- 
thing else that can be packed closely. The freight charges 
upon these sailing vessels are remarkably low. The Norwe- 
gians particularly will bring a cargo of assorted merchandise 
from Hamburg or coal from Cardiff around the Horn for five 
shillings a ton, a rate less than a Chicago truckman would 
charge to haul it from a railway station to a warehouse. 

There are several lines of steamers running regularly and 
no end of tramps looking for charters. Two lines give 
monthly sailings between the nitrate ports and New York, 
one under the management of W. R. Grace & Co., and the 
other under Flint, Eddy & Co. 

There is no fresh water at any of the nitrate towns. The 
entire supply for human consumption and for the reduction 
works must be brought a long distance. Formerly a fleet of 



364 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

small sailing vessels was employed to bring it in casks from 
the "wet ports" up and down the coast, and in times of 
scarcity it has sold as high as $2 a gallon. Frequently the 
price has run up to forty and fifty cents, but the average rate 
in the old days was about ten cents a gallon. The boats would 
load at Arica on the north and distribute their water from port 
to port until they reached Coquimbo, where they would refill 
their casks and sail back. 

Then condensers were introduced, sea water was pumped 
up and distilled. This was an expensive process, but a better 
quality of water was obtained and the salt that was extracted 
was a valuable by-product. All the salt used in Chile and 
Peru is dug out of the ground like coal. There are several 
basins along the coast where salt lakes have formerly been. 
The water has evaporated and has left solid masses of trans- 
lucent crystals, which are cut out with saws and sent to mar- 
ket in blocks like ice. 

Within a few years, as the nitrate business has grown in 
importance, companies have been formed to lay pipe lines 
from the mountains to several ports along the coast. The line 
which supplies Antofagasta is 185 miles long, that for Iquique 
is 148, that for Taltal is 102 miles, and those that supply other 
ports are of similar length. These conduits are made of ten 
and twelve inch iron pipe, and often lie upon the surface of the 
desert ; at no place are they buried more than two or three 
feet deep. That for Antofagasta follows the railroad track, 
and was built by the railway company to supply its tanks as 
well as the city. Some of these pipe lines cost millions of dol- 
lars, but they have been found profitable investments. It costs 
little or nothing to keep them in repair, and the supply of 
water is so abundant that it can be distributed around the city 
in underground pipes and among the mines and officinas, as 
the nitrate reduction works are called. The streets are piped, 
hydrants are provided as a protection against fire, the dust in 
the business streets is laid by sprinklers, bathrooms with run- 
ning water are now found in the houses and fountains in the 
patios of the rich, but these are expensive luxuries. Water 
used to be sold like beer and wine in pint and quart bottles, 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 365 

when bathing outside of the sea was too expensive for ordi- 
nary people to indulge in, but it is now sold by the foot and 
measured by meters. 

The late Colonel North of London, "the nitrate king," laid 
the foundation of his enormous fortune by peddling water in 
the streets of Iquique and Pisagua. While gossiping one day 
with Mr. Speedie, one of North's chums in early days and one 
of the oldest residents on this coast, I learned some interesting 
facts concerning this famous Englishman. 

North was a boilermaker at Leeds, and when a mere boy 
was brought out to Chile by a Captain Petrie. He was diligent 
at his trade and saving with his money. One day he con- 
ceived the idea of buying an old hulk that lay in the harbor 
and going into the water business. Petrie advanced him 
money. He repaired the vessel with his own hands, divided 
the hold into tanks, rigged pumps that would fill and empty 
them rapidly, and when his novel craft was afloat she drove 
the sailboats out of the business and paid for herself every 
month. North used to say that in all his speculations he had 
never known or heard of a business that paid a bigger profit. 
Mrs. North was a sort of general manager for the distribution 
business, took orders for water and collected the bills. There 
is a story that she used to peddle water in a donkey cart in the 
streets of Iquique, but that is a myth. She employed agents 
who drove tank carts from house to house and filled buckets 
and bottles as they were brought out to them in the same way 
and for about the same price that milk is sold in our cities. 

North had a good head for business, untiring energy and a 
native shrewdness in trading which Scotchmen and Yankees 
are supposed to possess in a high degree of development. He 
made money in many ways. He bought and sold old iron, 
picked up engines and machinery that had been discarded, 
repaired them and sold them sometimes to their original own- 
ers. He took contracts for almost everything in the building 
line. In the midst of this career there was a terrific fire at 
Iquique which swept away two-thirds of the town. The tele- 
graph line was destroyed, and all means of communication 
were cut off, but North had two tank steamers in the harbor. 



366 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

He boarded one, and one of his clerks boarded the other, and 
they started north and south, stopping at every town en route 
and buying up all the lumber, hardware, bricks, carpenters' 
tools and other building material on the coast, which was 
shipped to Iquique as rapidly as possible and sold at enormous 
prices. 

North came out of this speculation a rich man, with a large 
cash balance in the bank, and began to invade other fields of 
enterprise. He organized companies to build condensing 
works for a water supply and reduction plants for nitrate. At 
this time the nitrate district belonged to Peru. It was stolen 
by Chile during the war of 1881. The demand from Europe 
was rapidly increasing as the farmers learned of its value as a 
fertilizer, and, appreciating the possible importance of the 
product, President Pardo of Peru, declared the export of 
nitrate a government monopoly and endeavored to buy up all 
the private claims. North got early information concerning 
this intention, secured options upon as many mines as possible, 
and sold them to the government at a large advance. Pardo 's 
scheme fell through owing to a lack of funds to handle it, 
whereupon North took from the hands of the government all 
the mines that had been purchased, consolidated them under 
a single management, and became "the nitrate king." He 
formed associations, trusts and other combinations, secured 
exclusive concessions from the government, and at the time of 
his death, a few years ago, lived in a $2,000,000 palace in Lon- 
don and controlled the trade. 

Chile owns practically all the nitrate of soda in the world. 
Small quantities are found elsewhere and have been used for 
years for the manufacture of gunpowder and other chemicals. 
But on this coast only are deposits of sufficient importance to 
pay the expense of mining, and here the unlimited supply and 
the enormous output is beginning to make the business unpro- 
fitable. If all the officinas were run to their full capacity they 
would make double the amount required for the consumption 
of the world. One would think that under these circumstances, 
with all the mines within the limit of a few days' journey, and 
the general tendency to consolidation, that a combination 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OP CHILE 367 

would have been formed long ago to control the output and 
regulate prices ; but so many nationalities are represented and 
so great are the jealousies in the trade that it has been impos- 
sible to get producers to combine, and owing to overproduc- 
tion the price has gradually fallen from $1.56 per hundred 
weight at the time of Colonel North's death in 1894 to $1.12 
per hundred weight, and is still going off every year. 

Under the sand of this desert, which drifts before the 
wind like snow, nature by some mysterious process has laid a 
bed which resembles the crust that often forms on the top of 
snow when the days are warm and the nights are cold in win- 
ter. No one knows how it was formed, and while its extent has 
not been measured the official surveyors declare that there is 
enough to supply the whole world for 1,000 years. The sub- 
stance usually analyzes about as follows : 

Per cent. 

Nitrate of soda . o. 65 

Chloride of soda 23 

Iodine *o6 

Sulphate 03 

Earth and sand 03 

Total 1. 00 

This source of wealth — greater than any nation ever before 
enjoyed — was discovered in the early part of the century, but 
was supposed to be useless. After a few years small quan- 
tities were shipped to Europe for chemical purposes and the 
manufacture of gunpowder. The ammunition used by the 
patriots of Peru and Chile during the war for independence in 
1824 was made from nitrate found in this vicinity, but no one 
dreamed of its value as an article of commerce until George 
Smith, a forlorn Scotchman who was living on his wits in the 
village of Pica, near where the city of Iquique now stands, dis- 
covered that it was a good fertilizer. Smith was fond of flow- 
ers and fruit, and had a little garden which he cultivated with 
great care. One day he noticed that the trees and plants that 
were banked up with soil that contained traces of this myste- 
rious white substance flourished more than the others. This 
led to experiments, and the results were explained to John T. 



368 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Martin, a brother-in-law of Smith's, who had come out on a 
visit from Aberdeen. Martin was in the canned fruit and 
vegetable line, and when he went home took a few bags of the 
white stuff for the farmers from whom he bought his stuff to 
try in their orchards. Thus was the first nitrate sent to 
Europe to revive the worn-out land. Gibbs & Co., a business 
firm in Valparaiso, were the first to go into the business of 
export and became millionaires. Smith died as poor as he 
was born, and Martin vanished into oblivion. 

It was soon found, however, that nitrate in the raw state 
contained properties that were injuiious to some plants, and 
reduction works were established to extract the deleterious 
substances, which when treated chemically were found much 
more valuable than nitrate itself. 

The stuff is found on what they call the pampas — rolling 
deserts of sand and rock, entirely lifeless and elevated from 
4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea. The sand is first shoveled 
off and then a crust of clay is removed. This discloses a bed 
of white material that is as soft as cheese. The stratum is 
often four or five feet thick, and will average two or three feet. 
It is broken up by crowbars, shoveled into cars and taken to 
the "omcinas," where it is crushed to powder. It is then 
lifted by elevators into great vats, where it is dissolved in 
boiling sea water. The solution is run off into shallow iron 
vats, which when exposed to the dry air and the fierce heat of 
the sun rapidly evaporates. After a certain period of exposure 
the liquid is drawn off and the bottoms and sides of the pans 
are covered with white, sparkling crystals like alabaster. This 
is saltpeter, and it is shoveled upon drying boards, where it is 
exposed to the sun for awhile, then graded according to the 
quality and put into bags weighing a quintal, or about 100 
pounds, for shipment. The highest grade goes to the powder 
mills, the second grade to the chemical woiks, and the remain- 
der, the great bulk, goes to fertilize the exhausted soils of 
Europe. 

The yellow liquor that is drawn off is more valuable than 
the crystals it leaves in the pans, and is conducted by pipes to 
a crucible, where it is chemically treated and then poured into 



THE NITRATE DESERTS OF CHILE 369 

smaller pans, where it is allowed to cool and remain for a 
certain length of time, when the bottoms of these pans will be 
found coated with a beautiful blue crystal, which is the iodine 
of commerce and costs as much per ounce as the saltpeter per 
hundredweight. The iodine is packed in little casks and cov- 
ered with green hides, which shrink with drying until they are 
as tight as a drumhead and keep out the moisture. When 
these casks are shipped they are stored in the treasure vaults 
of the steamer with bullion and other valuable packages, for 
a single cask is worth $700 or $800. 

The shipments of nitrate are enormous, and in 1898 reached 
a total of 28,468,049 quintals, or packages of a hundredweight 
each, or nearly 3,000,000,000 pounds, value $90,675,297. This 
was an increase of 4,427,270 quintals or hundredweight, over 
1897. In 1877 the total was less than 5,000,000, and for sev- 
eral years previous it averaged about 2,000,000 a year. This 
year (1899) the exports will reach 30,000,000 quintals. 

Great Britain takes about one-third of the entire product, 
or 10,000,000 quintals: Germany, one-fifth, or 6,000,000; the 
United States and France each consume about 2,500,000 
annually; Holland, Belgium and Italy, about 1,250,000, and 
the remainder is divided among twenty other nations which 
last year took more or less. 

Iquique has the largest trade. It is a town of about 35,000 
inhabitants. Its most prominent citizen is an American 
named George B. Chase, an old resident, who found an aban- 
doned copper mine and has worked it with great profit until 
he has piled up several millions of dollars. Meantime he has 
been fighting a perpetual lawsuit in the courts with the Mac- 
kenna family, who claim the ownership of the property. 

The shipments of saltpeter from Iquique in 1899 were val- 
ued at $59,051,624, and those of iodine at $2,712,690. Pisagua 
is the second port, and its shipments last year were valued at 
about $15,000,000. 

Antofagasta resembles Iquique, but owes its importance to 
silver and copper mining instead of nitrate. It is the terminus 
of a railway to the interior of Bolivia which brings down 
enormous quantities of ore and bullion, particularly from the 



37o BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Huanchaca mine of Bolivia, which is said to be the most 
extensive silver mine at present in the world. It belongs to 
ex-President Arce of Bolivia, and its ore is so rich that it has 
been able to compete with Mexico and the United States even 
during the long silver depression. 

Owing to the advance in the value of copper, a great, deal 
of attention has recently been directed to vast deposits of that 
metal which are known to exist in Chile, and particularly along 
this coast. Abandoned mines have been reopened, those 
which were flooded have been pumped out, many new and 
important prospects have been discovered and taken up by 
both foreign and native capitalists, and there has been a rush 
to buy properties in which both foreign and local syndicates 
have joined. Ore that will pay $300 a ton can be shipped to 
Europe with great profit. Ore that pays less is smelted here 
and converted into what they call "regulus," which is unre- 
fined copper. 

The great trouble, however, is the lack of labor. Thou- 
sands of men who are willing to handle a pick and shovel 
could find employment in the mines at large wages, but it is a 
terrible life, and anybody who knows anything about mining 
can do much better working on his own account and selling his 
ore than by putting his name upon the pay roll of a company. 

Behind Antofagasta are several active volcanoes, which 
constantly emit sulphurous vapors that can be seen at a great 
distance. One of them, Antofalla, measures 19,500 feet, and 
Lastarria is a little higher. An American syndicate is working 
an immense deposit of pure native sulphur in the forest range 
of the Andes, and there are hot springs of vile brackish water 
every few miles. In comparison with this awful desert Sahara 
is a botanical garden, but people claim that Antofagasta is 
very healthy if you don't starve to death or die of thirst. 



XXIII 
THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 

Valparaiso is a queer sort of a city, and lies around the nar- 
row rim of a bay which describes a semi-circle. Behind it are 
nineteen separate hills and mountains, from 300 to 1,100 feet 
in height. The space between the bay and the foot of the 
mountains is very narrow. At one place it is wide enough for 
only two streets. At other places the gaps between the hills 
enable the city to creep back a considerable distance, but no 
where is the distance between the base of the mountains and 
the bay more than half a mile. The length of the city is some- 
thing over four miles and the curve is almost the arc of a 
perfect circle. 

The bay opens to the north, a wide area without any pro- 
tection whatever, and when "northers" come the water from 
the ocean is blown into the bay and the surf dashes over the 
Malecon, as the sea wall and esplanade are called. There are 
no docks or wharves, but the whole frontage of the bay is util- 
ized instead. Steam cranes have been erected at different 
intervals, which lift packages of freight from large launches 
and lighters that are towed to and from the ships anchored 
a mile or two away. It is an awkward and expensive 
way of handling commerce, but the only way that ordinary 
docks could be protected would be to build a breakwater across 
the mouth of the bay, which is several miles in width and 
sixty or seventy fathoms deep. There are several projects for 
such an improvement, but they involve so great a cost that the 
people are frightened whenever they are talked about. 

Although "northers" are expected every now and then 
during the winter season, and more or less damage is always 
done, there were never so many or so fierce storms as were 
experienced in August, 1899. For several days in succession 

37i 



372 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

huge waves rushed over the sea wall and dashed against the 
doors of the houses on the other side of the esplanade. Their 
force was so great as to destroy heavy masonry in several 
places, tear up the pavement of Belgian blocks, carry off the 
railway tracks that lay in the middle of the street, with loaded 
cars that stood on the switches, and even undermine the foun- 
dations of the houses so that several of them had to come 
down. 

At the same time the heavy rainfall upon the nineteen hills 
came in torrents and even cascades down the streets and alleys 
from the other direction. The sewers, which are usually made 
of ten or twelve inch pipes, were soon filled up with sand and 
earth and forced the water to the surface. In this way greater 
damage was done than by the sea. Several houses were 
washed out, and several lives were lost, while the narrow 
streets of the city were filled with earth and water to a depth 
of five or six feet, which did not subside for several days, dur- 
ing which time the inhabitants were compelled to live in the 
upper stories of their houses and go about in boats, and suffered 
serious losses by the destruction of their furniture and house- 
hold goods and the stock of merchandise in their stores, and 
by the injury done to the floors and walls of their buildings. 
This experience was repeated several times during the winter 
after the first flood had filled the sewers with sand. 

The great artery of commerce, Victoria Street, follows the 
coast line for the entire length of the city, and is fronted by 
the banks and hotels, the retail shops, the government build- 
ings and many fine private residences. The business portion 
of Valparaiso shows some good architecture, more elaborate 
and expensive than can be seen anywhere on the Pacific coast 
south of San Francisco. The shops and stores are large, and 
contain as complete an assortment of goods as can be found in 
any city of the world. There is no place in the United States 
of a similar population with such a display of costly and lux- 
urious articles. The people are wealthy and prosperous, the 
foreign element is large and accustomed to the best things 
that money can buy, and Valparaiso has always been famous 
for the extravagance of its citizens. Some of the private resi- 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 373 

dences are palatial in their proportions ; there are clubs as fine 
as the average in Europe or America, lovely parks, public 
reading rooms, libraries, picture galleries and all the elements 
that go to make up modern civilization. The opera house, 
which is owned by the municipality, surpasses in size and 
beauty any that can be found in the United States outside of 
Chicago and New York, and for thirty nights each winter Ital- 
ian grand opera is presented by the same company that 
occupies the opera house at Milan, Italy, during the winter 
months of the year. The city gives a subsidy of $40,000 as 
an inducement to the manager to bring his singers and orches- 
tra, and no rent is charged for the building. 

There are several fine monuments, and one of them was 
erected in honor of William Wheelwright, an American, who 
established steam communication on this coast and built the 
first railway in South America. There is a statue of Colum- 
bus and another of Admiral Cochrane, the Englishman who 
commanded the revolutionary fleet in the war for independ- 
ence ; but the most imposing monument and one of the finest 
in America was recently erected in honor of Arturo Prat, one 
of the heroes of the war with Peru. There is also a monument 
in honor of three young men of Valparaiso, members of a vol- 
unteer fire company, who lost their lives in trying to rescue 
some women from a burning building some years ago. The 
city is strongly fortified and the most conspicuous building 
upon the hills around it is a naval academy, where 200 or 300 
young men are studying the arts of war and navigation. 

Valparaiso is a cosmopolitan city, and the foreign popula- 
tion is nearly equal to the number of the natives. The Ger- 
mans are most numerous, and, as in other cities on this coast, 
have the largest share of the retail trade. The Italians, 
Spaniards, French and English come next in order, with a few 
citizens of the United States. Very few cities of the same 
population can compare with Vaparaiso in the volume of busi- 
ness transacted and the amount of its foreign commerce. Dur- 
ing 1898, 914 steamships entered this port to discharge cargo, 
an average of seventy-six a month, and 194 sailing vessels. 

The climate is delightful. The temperature seldom exceeds 



374 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

80 degrees in midsummer, and never drops to the freezing 
point. There are occasional earthquakes, and during 1896 
there were thirty-five shocks of considerable violence, which 
did some damage, but no lives have been lost from that cause 
for more than a century. 

An evening view of Valparaiso from a steamer in the bay 
is quite startling, as the terraces of light, one above the other, 
to the height of 400 or 500 feet, give the appearance of a city 
turned up on end. Electric lamps are abundant, and large 
arc lights are placed at frequent intervals upon the crests of 
the cliffs with reflectors that throw their rays over into the 
streets and upon the terraces with the effect of moonlight. 
Standing upon the balconies that project from the residences 
on the hillsides the scene in the bay at night and the brilliant 
illumination of the semicircular city chat surrounds it is as 
brilliant as fairyland. 

Valparaiso is the second city of Chile and next to San Fran- 
cisco the most important port on the Pacific coast of America. 
The name means "vale of paradise," and is so incongruous in 
several respects as to provoke sarcasm, but the true origin was 
as follows: In 1536 a Spanish captain named Saavadra was 
sent by Diego de Almagro, Pizarro's partner, to take posses- 
sion of an Indian village called Quintal, which stood here at 
that time, and his loyalty to his native place, Valparaiso, a 
town of Castile, prompted him to christen the city he founded 
in its honor. 

Nature never intended that a city of 125,000 inhabitants 
should be located here. The inhabitants have shown a good 
deal of ingenuity and patience in overcoming the natural diffi- 
culties, and have covered the almost perpendicular and rocky 
escarpments that surround the bay with houses. Indeed, the 
most agreeable and fashionable residence quarter is on the 
cliffs, which are reached by winding roads and lifts such as one 
sees in Cincinnati and Pittsburg. On the edges of the cliffs 
the poorer classes have built rude dwellings of old timber and 
all sorts of debris, patched up with sheets of corrugated iron, 
and some of them, perched upon almost inaccessible rocks and 
propped up with ungainly wooden supports, present an appear- 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 375 

ance of peril and inconvenience. During the storms several 
were washed away, although they did not suffer so much as 
one would expect. 

William Wheelwright, of Camden, N. J., built the first rail- 
way in South America, from Caldera to Copiapo, in 1849. 
Allan Campbell, who recently died in New York, was his chief 
engineer. In 1846 they surveyed a line between Valparaiso 
and Santiago, and it was partially built and in operation under 
the management of Samuel Warde Greene, of Rhode Island, 
in 1855. Henry Meigs, the California fugitive, completed it 
in 1863, and gave the Chileans a conspicuous illustration of 
American enterprise. The government made a contract with 
him under which it was stipulated that the road should be 
ready for traffic in three years. He was to receive a bonus of 
$10,000 a month for all the time anticipated, and pay a forfeit 
of the same amount for every month's delay. He finished the 
job in two years and had 10,000 men at work under sixty-two 
American engineers and contractors. 

Among them was John L. Thorndike, who left a position on 
the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad to go with Meigs to Peru. 
He built the railway to Bolivia, which he managed for many 
years, until it was turned over to the Peruvian corporation, 
which now controls all the railroads in that republic. Mr. 
Thorndike is still living in Lima, the most prominent member 
of the American colony, enjoying a well-earned fortune and 
reputation. He was the successor of Henry Meigs in Peru- 
vian enterprises. Mr. Edward C. Du Bois, who is also living 
in Lima and occupies the old Meigs mansion, which is the 
finest in the country, was also engaged upon the Valparaiso & 
Santiago Railroad for several years, and one of his associates 
was Thomas Braniff , who afterward went to Mexico and built 
railways and engaged in other enterprises there. He has the 
reputation of being the richest man in that republic. Charles 
F. Hillman, who is still living in Santiago; Charles Green, 
his brother-in-law, who is United States consul at Antofa- 
gasta, were also members of the party. Hillman built the 
street-car system of Santiago, and carried out other important 
enterprises. 



376 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Among other Americans who introduced modern improve- 
ments into Chile were "Big Ben" Bates and Ben Carman, who 
was familiarly known as "the sunny boy," because of his dis- 
position; "Dad" Pierce, from the State of Maine, and his 
three sons, Peleg, Waldo and Charles, who were contractors ; 
Henry Meigs Keith, of Brooklyn, a nephew of Meigs; 
James B. Cilley, of New Hampshire, who assisted Meigs in 
the construction of Oroya road in Peru, and was for many 
years its manager, until his death; George B. Maynadier, 
of Maryland; Walter W. Evans; John R. Bernard, who 
committed suicide while afflicted with softening of the 
brain; Charles Downes, who served for forty years on the 
government railways here, and is now retired on a pension; 
Charles Hill, who is said to be living on Long Island, 
and John R. Gillis, a son of a commodore in our navy, 
who returned to the States and built railways in the Rocky 
Mountains. 

Mr. Wheelwright went to the Argentine Republic as an 
apostle of enterprise, and built railways there, and founded 
the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which built up the 
commerce of England along the coast and is to extend its 
service to San Francisco. 

There will be a considerable increase of trade, I hope, when 
direct steam communication is established, but it will be nec- 
essary for American merchants to come down here, establish 
agencies and introduce their goods in order to secure a share 
of the trade, because the commercial habits of the country are 
firmly fixed, and it will be impossible to divert them without 
a strong and patient effort. There is no reason why nearly 
all the foreign merchandise needed in Chile cannot be sent on 
a through bill of lading from Chicago to Valparaiso and other 
ports on this coast by way of Los Angeles, San Diego or San 
Francisco. The distance is shorter than to Liverpool or Ham- 
burg, and the steamship companies will certainly made as good 
rates as to those ports. 

The United States has never had a large trade in Chile. 
Our imports from that country consist mostly of nitrate of 
soda and other minerals, hides and wool, and average $3,750,- 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 377 

000 a year. In 1896 the total was $1,000,000 more. In 1891 
the total was $3,448,290; in 1898 is was $3,736,307. 

Our exports to Chile have varied from $2,000,000 to $3,000,- 
000 a year, and have nearly all been carried as ballast by sail- 
ing vessels which go down for nitrate or by the steamers that 
are sent monthly by Grace & Co., of New York, with their 
own stock. In 1888 the total was $3,145,000. In 1898 it had 
fallen to $2^,351,727. 

In order to give you an idea of the class of goods which we 
are sending to Chile, I find in the statistics of her imports from 
the United States that the largest item is cotton fabrics, 
amounting to $1,171,484, or nearly half of the whole. The 
other chief items were : 

Breadstuffs $341,976 

Oils 178,086 

Manufactures of wood . . . . . . 122,498 

Agricultural machinery 79, 608 

Preserved fish . 5°,4°3 

Clocks and watches j 46,598 

Drugs and patent medicines . . . ( 82,339 

Cordage and twine 34,886 

Naval stores 43,638 

Paper 36,154 

Provisions 45,587 

Plated ware 11,318 

Soap and soap stocks 32,859 

Telephone and telegraph supplies . . 25,054 

Iron and steel 43,979 

Nails and tacks 44.*59 

Pipes and fittings 22,149 

Cutlery and saws 7,869 

Firearms 18,452 

Builders' hardware 28,775 

Scales and balances 13,301 

Tools 18,683 

Stoves, ranges, etc 9,343 

Electrical machinery 16,298 

Metal-wot king machinery 8,627 

Printing presses 2,178 

Pumps and pumping machinery . . . 2,834 

Sewing machines 7,663 

Shoe machinery i f 950 



378 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Locomotive parts 8,033 

Boilers and engines x 7,665 

Typewriters 6,735 

All other machinery ........ 52,088 

Lamps 3,927 

Type 7,619 

Leather goods 7,709 

Paints 2,363 

Perfumery 6,947 

Photographic materials 6,141 

Stationery 10,722 

Tobacco 5,832 

Dental supplies 6,753 

Varnish 2,523 

Shoe blacking 2,356 

Books 14,043 

Bicycles 14,206 

Carriages 10,044 

The people of Chile are large buyers and consume an 
immense amount of imported goods, on an average of about 
$70,000,000 a year in gold. In 1898 the total imports were 
$168,069,431 in the local currency, which was worth about 40 
or 42 cents in gold. The imports consisted chiefly of wearing 
apparel and household goods, machinery and the luxuries of 
life. The largest items were refined petroleum, $2,029,622; 
wire, $782,577; livestock, $4,349,934; rice; $1,048,214; drugs, 
$1,348,459; flannel goods, $1,449,220; other woolen goods, 
$1,556,635; white cotton goods, $2,485,088; cotton prints, 
$2,195,335; cotton sacking, $760,146; other kinds of cotton 
goods, $3,789,675; agricultural machinery, $1,220,771; other 
machinery, $1,484,440; bags for nitrate, $2,966,419; tea, 
$1,347,106; candles, $1,457,808. 

The largest share of the trade goes to England. The total 
amount of imports from that country from 1844 to 1898 reached 
$775,767,011, while that from Germany during the same period 
reached only $325,316,965 ; but the Germans are creeping up 
very rapidly upon Great Britain, which is due to cheap freights 
and the establishment of German mercantile houses in this 
country. The United States stands fourth in the list of 
imports, the total for fifty-four years being $139,080,599. 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 379 

The exports of Chile in 1898 amounted to $168,069,431, of 
which 75 per cent were the products of her mines, nitrates, 
copper and silver ; 8 per cent products of agriculture and 4 per 
cent of live stock. Great Britain took the bulk of her exports, 
a total of $111,324,574; Germany came second with $24,583,- 
031; France, $11,314,685. 

Chile is passing through a financial depression. It is the 
old story of governmental and individual extravagance, spec- 
ulation and bad management. Both the government and the 
people have been living beyond their incomes and have bor- 
rowed money to meet the deficit ; then, as the time approached 
for a settlement, they attempted to postpone the crisis, and, 
after securing a temporary grace, demanded the right to pay 
their debts in a currency less valuable than that they had 
borrowed. The situation, so far as the parties to the contro- 
versy are concerned, is the exact reverse of that which we 
experienced in the United States. The rich people want 
paper money. The poor people demand gold. The capital- 
ists, the big planters, the manufacturers, the miners and the 
bankers are calling for an increase in the paper currency on 
the ground that the volume now outstanding is not sufficient 
for the commercial requirements of the country. This may 
be true, but it is due to the fact that the abundance of paper 
has driven the gold and silver out of circulation and caused 
those who are so fortunate as to possess coin to hide it in stock- 
ings and old teapots, or put it in their tin boxes in the safe- 
deposit vaults. The last of $65,000,000 in gold coin disap- 
peared from circulation within twenty-four hours after a 
law for the issue of $50,000,00 of paper notes had been signed, 
and for a few days there was no money in the country. Street 
car tickets, postage stamps, memoranda written in pencil on 
the backs of cards and old envelopes, "I. O. U.s" in every 
conceivable form, were passed around in lieu of currency until 
the minister of finance relieved the situation by disbursing a 
lot of printed notes that had been obsolete for years, but were 
lying in one of the vaults of the treasury, covered with dust. 
This was surcharged with a rubber stamp and used tempora- 
rily, until the printing office could supply the notes authorized 



380 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

by the new law. Some of it is still in circulation. By the 
railways, which are owned by the government, credit was 
extended to those who were known to the ticket sellers and 
freight agents. This was absolutely necessary, because there 
was no coin or other currency with which the people could pay. 
The paper money in circulation was worth about 30 cents 
on the dollar — you could get $3. 30 for a United States green- 
back, $16 for a pound sterling — and the debtor class wanted to 
settle their obligations in that instead of the gold coin that 
they borrowed some * ears ago. The creditor class protested, 
and was supported by the laboring population, who resisted 
every measure that tended to lessen the value of their earn- 
ings, because the cost of living has remained the same, while 
the purchasing power of their wages has been reduced in a 
considerable degree. The following comparison will show the 
change which took place in the incomes of wage-earners of 
this country within thirty days after the issue of paper money 
as above described, and the difference is much greater to-day: 

Value in Gold 
June 1, '98 July 1, '98. 

Wages of ordinary laborers . . . $0.50 $0.34 

Masons 67 .47 

Carpenters 1.33 .93 

Gasfitters ......',.... 1.33 .93 

Painters 1.00 .70 

Engineers 1.50 1.00 

Firemen 75 .50 

There has been a corresponding reduction in the purchasing 
power of the incomes of the entire population. 

The recent financial history of Chile contains many e/ents 
of interest. In 1895 the congress passed an act providing for 
the resumption of specie payments and the establishment of a 
gold standard of value. At that time the circulation outstand- 
ing consisted of $18,000,000 in government notes, $5,000,000 
in silver, and $20,000,000 in bank notes. The law provided 
that the government should redeem both its own and the notes 
of the banks in gold coin, dollar for dollar, upon presentation, 
and it was provided also that the banks should redeem their 
own notes from the government in monthly installments. If 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 381 

for any reason they failed to do so they were to pay interest 
at the rate of 6 per cent per annum upon all deferred redemp- 
tions. To secure sufficient gold to carry out this law a loan of 
$10,000,000 was secured in London and the proceeds of the 
sales of nitrate deposits were also set aside for that purpose. 

The first effect of this law was to confirm public confidence 
and increase the value of the paper money, but the banks took 
advantage of the indulgence allowed them by the law to impose 
upon the government and were allowed to do so because of the 
amiability of the financial authorities. They would send their 
own notes to the treasury for redemption and receive gold for 
them. The notes would be destroyed and the transaction 
would stand simply as a loan of gold by the government to the 
banks at 6 per cent interest, running an indefinite time at the 
discretion of the minister of finance. In the meantime the 
banks would loan the gold to their customers at a higher rate 
of interest, often 10 and 12 per cent, and thus make a hand- 
some profit which they were loath to lose. This continued 
until the government treasury had been drained of gold and 
had nothing to show for it except the accounts of the banks. 
The natural influence of such a lax financial policy on the part 
of the government was to demoralize private transactions, but 
more serious was the effect upon the Bank of Chile, which is 
a government institution, like the Bank of England, and 
which, being drained of its coin, was allowed to continue its 
existence upon the national credit. When the banks were 
called upon to make good the gold that was advanced for the 
redemption of their notes they could not refund because their 
customers were unable to repay their loans. 

At the very height of this folly came a war scare. The 
controversy between Chile and the Argentine Republic over 
the boundary line grew so acute that both governments, 
although bound to submit the question to arbitration, began to 
make active preparations for hostilities upon a scale entirely 
out of proportion to their wealth, population and resources. 
Chile expended something like $20,000,000 in gold in the pur- 
chase of military and naval supplies in Europe, and, although 
the government had borrowed $10,000,000 in England to 



382 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

redeem its paper currency, for every gold dollar brought into 
the country under that loan two gold dollars were sent back to 
pay for ships, arms, ammunition and other supplies. Chile 
ranks twenty-third among the civilized nations of the world in 
population, but within three years she brought up her navy to 
the eighth place, and her army in numerical strength and 
equipment was made equal to that of the United States before 
the war with Spain. 

After the enactment of the resumption law $67,000,000 in 
gold was coined, and on the first of June, 1898, it is estimated 
that $45,000,000 was in active circulation in that country, but 
when the crisis came, on June 18, 1898, and congress was 
informed that there was an available cash balance of only 
$30,000 in the Bank of Chile, the public became frightened, 
there was a general panic and a run on all the banks which 
would have exhausted their deposits immediately had not the 
government granted permission to all the banks in the country 
to close their doors for five days. During this interval con- 
gress passed an act called the moratoria, or "license of debt- 
ors, ' ' the effect of which was the suspension of all payments 
and actions at law for debt for thirty days, without prejudice 
to the debtor. After the passage of this act the banks resumed 
business, but exercised a discretion in cashing such checks and 
in paying their depositors only such sums as in the judgment 
of the bankers would relieve actual necessities. The imme- 
diate effect of this extraordinary policy was to close all manu- 
facturing establishments and suspend the pay rolls of all large 
employers. Almost the entire working population of the 
country found themselves thrown out of employment and their 
incomes stopped without any immediate prospects of relief. . 

The mechanics, the small tradesmen and the wage-earners 
of Santiago held public meetings, and at the capital an army 
of 6,000 workingmen marched to the palace of the president 
and submitted a petition demanding an early solution of the 
crisis, "as by next week the whole working population of the 
country will be without food." The president replied that he 
regretted their situation, and sympathized with their condition, 
but was unable to relieve it, and advised them to apply to con- 



THE CITY OF VALPARAISO 383 

gress. Acting upon this suggestion, the immense throng sur- 
rounded the house of congress and through a committee 
demanded the immediate enactment of legislation necessary to 
relieve the situation. 

In fear of violence congress passed a bill authorizing the 
issue of $50,000,000 in paper money, which gave temporary 
relief, but the immediate result was, as I have stated, the 
absolute disappearance of every gold and silver coin in circula- 
tion. Thus, instead of increasing the currency, there was an 
actual contraction. Not less than $45,000,000 of coin was 
withdrawn by those who were so fortunate as to hold it, and 
$50,006,000 of paper, having an actual value of only about 
$35,000,000, was substituted, and it has since depreciated still 
more. 



XXIV 

SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 

It is a journey of five hours from Valparaiso to Santiago 
over a railway built by American engineers and contractors 
about fifty years ago, which now belongs to the government 
and is operated at a loss for political reasons. Those who 
believe in government ownership of railways may find an 
instructive object lesson in Chile. Wages are higher and the 
number of employes for the same service is much larger upon 
the government roads than upon private roads of the same 
mileage. The discipline is less severe, accidents are more 
frequent, and the cost of maintenance is considerably larger. 
The employes upon government roads work a limited number 
of hours, and are given greater piivileges. They obtain and 
retain their positions more through political pull than effi- 
ciency. On the other hand, a large number of people who 
could not possibly secure employment from private corpora- 
tions find it easy to get good places and good wages from the 
government, and the general welfare is promoted at the same 
time by low rates of transportation. 

I do not know any country where the luxuries of railway 
travel are so cheap as in Chile. You can ride 125 miles from 
Valparaiso to Santiago, for example, for $2.70 gold, and by 
paying 30 cents extra can have a reserve seat in a Pullman 
car. But there is no allowance for baggage. You have to 
pay 3 cents a pound for every package that goes into the bag- 
gage car, and they will not allow you to take trunks or large 
parcels into the passenger cars. Economical travelers evade 
this regulation by arranging their belongings in several small 
packages and valises instead of a single large one. Similar 
rates are charged on the other lines that belong to the govern- 
ment. On those owned by private corporations the taiiff is 

384 



SANTIAGO. THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 385 

much higher, but they are run for profit and not as political 
machines. 

Chile has the only Pullman cars on the west coast of 
South America. Although they are still very comfortable and 
a great improvement upon the ordinary coaches, they are of 
the old fashion, the pattern of twenty years ago, and look 
quite antiquated in comparison with the modern sleepers and 
parlor cars we see in the United States. The Pullmans are 
well patronized, for the people are fond of luxury and comfort. 
The entire rolling stock of the road is rather antiquated, of 
the American pattern, and needs painting and repairs. The 
same complaint will apply to all of the government roads. 
They are not kept up. The managers know that they are 
losing money, and naturally want to keep the deficit down as 
low as possible for their own credit. They therefore spend 
very little for new rolling stock and repairs. 

The railway stations at Valparaiso and Santiago are splen- 
did structures of imposing architecture, well adapted for their 
purpose, and are much superior to those usually found in 
cities of similar size in the United States. The employes of 
the passenger trains and at the stations are courteous and 
attentive, the eating houses are well kept and served, the 
scenery is picturesque, and altogether the journey is enjoyable. 

The first stop of importance is in Vin del Mar, the aristo- 
cratic suburb of Valparaiso, where the rich have summer 
residences, and there is a fine big hotel for the accommodation 
of people who are not so fortunate. Sea bathing, fishing, 
delightful drives, a race course, tennis courts, golf links, polo 
grounds and other appurtenances for pleasure and pastime are 
abundant and are thoroughly enjoyable. Sunday is a gala day 
at Vin del Mar. The people of Chile have passed the bull- 
fight period in civilization, but have horse races every Sunday 
afternoon, which are attended by everybody. The residenters 
entertain house parties of friends from town, and the hotels 
are filled with city people who come early and go back late. 

Farther up the valley which the railroad follows is some 
splendid scenery, including an extended view of Aconcagua, 
which is claimed to be the highest mountain in America, and 



386 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

lifts its peak nearly 25,000 feet above the sea. Sir Martin 
Conway, the Alpine climber of England, found that Illampu 
and Sorata in Bolivia were higher, or at least that was the story 
he gave out at La Paz when he returned from his ascent, but 
after he got to Chile he appears to have revised his reports and 
redued their elevation about 2,000 feet. 

Aconcagua is not so picturesque a peak as those you see in 
Ecuador and Bolivia, and notwithstanding its great height is 
less imposing, because the summit is flat and shapeless. It 
looks as if somebody had sat upon it immediately after crea- 
tion, while it was still warm, and squashed it down. 

The railway tracks follow a beautiful river that foams and 
laughs in a series of little cascades. Frequently the valley 
spreads out into generous dimensions to give room for hacien- 
das that are well kept and highly cultivated. The farmers 
are plowing and planting just now, turning the rich loam with 
modern plows drawn by fine, fat oxen. "We realize at once 
that we have returned to the realms of civilization — out of the 
past, as represented by the primitive and antique processes of 
Peru and Ecuador, into the present, as examplified in the 
enterprising up-to-date Chilanos, who are as eager to secure 
the latest modern improvements as their neighbors of the 
other west coast republics are to cling to the customs of their 
fathers. This, however, is largely a matter of climate. As 
you approach the temperate zones nature exacts more labor as 
the price of existence. A higher value is placed upon human 
life, and more energy and intelligence are applied to its devel- 
opment. 

No city in the world has a finer location than Santiago. It 
is situated in the center of a magnificent amphitheater about 
forty miles long and eighteen miles wide, inclosed by a mighty 
wall of mountains, which for more than one-half the distance 
are covered with perpetual snow. Lucerne, Interlaken, and 
other mountain resorts of Switzerland are mere miniatures 
compared with Santiago, and although La Paz has a much 
greater elevation, and is surrounded by mightier peaks, they 
do not lie in such close proximity, and, being nearer the trop- 
ics, have not been covered by nature with such a heavy 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 387 

blanket of snow. The highest peaks that surround Santiago 
do not rise to a greater elevation than 17,000 and 18,000 feet. 
The snow line is between 13,000 and 14,000 feet; then comes 
a belt of timber, and below it the slopes and foothills furnish 
pasture for millions of cattle and lead down to the wine belt, 
where are splendid vineyards. One of them, belonging to Mr. 
Errazuriz, formerly minister of foreign affairs, covers more 
than 1,000 acres and is claimed by Chilanos to be the largest 
in the world, although the vineyard of the late Senator Stan- 
ford in Tehama county, California, contains 3,580 acres in 
grapes and more than 1,000,000 vines. 

The wines of Chile have long had a local fame, and are now 
being exported in considerable quantities. There is an asso- 
ciation for the promotion of the foreign trade, and the govern- 
ment is aiding it with contributions of money. The climate is 
similar to that of the Pyrenees. The soil is eminently suitable 
for grape culture, and the area is practically unlimited. The 
Macul estate, which belonged to the late Widow Cousino, who 
was reputed to be the richest woman in the world, is second in 
extent to that of Mr. Errazuriz, and even more beautiful in its 
appointments and landscape culture. 

The level portion of the amphitheater is highly cultivated 
with all sorts of crops such as we grow in our temperate zone. 
It is divided into large haciendas, with fine cattle and horses 
at the breeding farms which are attached to nearly every one 
of them. The haciendos of Chile take great pride in their live 
stock, and breed hunters and running horses as well as more 
substantial stock. Their residences resemble the baronial 
mansions of England and their owners live like English lords. 
Nearly all the estates are heavily mortgaged to meet the 
extravagance of their owners, who are in the habit of antici- 
pating their incomes to gratify their love of luxury and dis- 
play, and spending money faster than they make it. It was 
these people who borrowed the gold which the banks received 
from the government in redemption of their paper notes. 

There are many beautiful drives, parks and pleasure resorts 
in the neighborhood of the city of Santiago, and on Sundays 
particularly they are thronged with the amusement-loving 



388 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

population, who spend the day in recreation and the night in 
carousal, and the next day in sleeping it off. 

In the center of the city of Santiago, and the great amphi- 
theater I have described, is a little park known as "El Cerro 
de Santa Lucia," which I have long held to be the prettiest 
place in the world. From the midst of the plain rises a pile 
of rocks about 400 feet high and at the base covering an area 
of seven or eight acres. It is a freak of nature. The geolo- 
gists say that some wandering iceberg dropped these rocks 
there during the glacial period ; others contend that they are 
evidence of a terrestrial convulsion and were thrown up some 
time when Mother Earth had a terrible colic, but their origin 
is a matter of very little importance. It is enough to see that 
they are there, and have been decorated and improved in a 
most artistic manner by the late Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, 
one of the ablest and noblest men that ever lived in Chile. It 
is difficult to get a photograph of the place because of the 
foliage which covers the little mountain. The summit is 
reached by several winding roads and walks, that are walled 
up in a most picturesque manner, with towers and battlements 
like a mediaeval castle. At intervals are kiosks for music and 
refreshment ; half way up is a theater, where light opera and 
vaudeville entertainments are given afternoons and evenings; 
a little farther on is a restaurant, where people come to dine 
and breakfast, and near the summit is a little chapel in which 
the remains of Mr. Mackenna are buried. He owned this 
place, beautified it at his own expense and then presented it 
to the city. It was rather incongruous to place a mortuary 
chapel in the midst of a pleasure resort, but Mr. Mackenna 
insisted that his bones should be buried here, and in order to 
make sure of it he built the chapel and the tomb himself and 
made it a condition of his gift to his fellow-citizens. There is 
a monument to an archbishop near by, and another to Padro 
Valdivia, one of the famous knights identified with the con- 
quest of Chile. 

Many years ago, before Santa Lucia became the property 
of Mr. Mackenna, it was used as a dumping ground and a 
potter's field, and before the cemeteries of the country were 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 389 

opened to Jews and gentiles, all that sort of folk, including 
protestants, duelists, suicides, atheists and others who had 
been excommunicated or were under the ban of the church, 
found burial here. When Mr. Mackenna began to fit the place 
out for a park their bones were removed to the corner of one 
of the catholic cemeteries and were allowed to lie in conse- 
crated ground. The church authorities erected a monument 
over their remains and inscribed upon it a most extraordinary 
epitaph, which informs all comers that the souls of those who 
lie beneath are "exiles from both heaven and earth." 

From the summit of Santa Lucia is a sublime view. You 
can see everything within the great amphitheater I have de- 
scribed, and few landscapes in all the world are so glorious. I 
used to go there every morning to get this view, and I know 
people who have been going every fair day for years with the 
same object. 

From Santa Lucia a broad highway called the Alameda 
leads down to a government park, known as the Quinta Nor- 
mal, on the other side of the city, four miles away, where a 
botanical garden and experimental station is maintained by 
the agricultural department, with a zoo, a museum and a pub- 
lic playground for the benefit of the people. There is a fine 
exposition building, in which agricultural fairs are held 
annually, and industrial expositions are made from time to 
time. A restaurant near by is a popular resort for the rich 
people, but the poor go to Cousino Park, on another side of the 
city, which was presented to the public by a rich widow of that 
name, and is a popular assembling ground for the common 
people, with cheap cafes, drinking places, merry-go-rounds 
and various other forms of entertainment for the thousands. 
It is here that you see the peons of Chile at their best, and can 
study the customs of a most original and interesting people. 
In the center of the park is a big circular parade ground with 
a mile track around it. The latter is used for fast driving and 
the former for cavalry drills, which attract a great many 
spectators. 

In various parts of Cousino Park are booths and stands for 
dancing, and any Sunday afternoon and evening you can see 



390 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the "zama-cuaca" — the Chilean national dance, pronounced 
zama-quaker. It is a sort of decent cancan, and the men 
instead of women do [the high kicking. The couples pair off 
with handkerchiefs in their hands, and dance face to face, 
while on a bench near by the musicians pick mandolins, thrum 
guitars and the spectators sing a charming air in polka time. 
Each dancer waves his handkerchief with graceful gestures in 
the air, sways around in postures that are intended to show 
grace and suppleness, and the women raise their skirts just 
high enough to show the color of their stockings. 

The Alameda, the grand boulevard of Santiago, is 600 feet 
wide, broken by four rows of poplar trees, and stretches the 
full length of the city. In the center is a promenade for 
pedestrians, with a street-car track on either side, and two 
driveways, each 100 feet wide. The promenade is broken by a 
number of monuments commemorating important events in 
the history of Chile, and the statues of famous men. There 
are several stands where military bands give music every 
afternoon during the season, when all the population comes 
out to walk or drive. 

Fronting the Alameda are the finest residences in the city, 
and several of them are magnificent ; but the pavements are 
abominable, not only on the Alameda, which is the favorite 
driveway, but everywhere throughout Santiago, and it seems 
extraordinary that this should be tolerated by a people famous 
for their pride as well as for their fine horses and carriages. 

The finest private residences on the southern continent and 
among the finest in America are those erected by the late 
Senora Isidora Cousino at Santiago and at Lota, Chile. Her 
city residence compares well with any in New York, and her 
chateau of white Italian marble at Lota, where her coal mines 
are, would do credit to Newport. It stands in the center of a 
French landscape garden with every possible embellishment, 
and few pleasure grounds in Europe can compare with it. I 
know of none in the United States unless it be Biltmore, the 
estate of George Vanderbilt in the North Carolina mountains, 
which is, however, essentially different in most respects, being 
practical in its purpose, while the park at Lota was intended 



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SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 391 

for pleasure. Every particle of material that entered into the 
chateau at Lota is said to have been brought from France in 
Senora Cousino's own ships, and the interior is adorned with 
sumptuous furniture and decorations by famous French artists. 
The house was incomplete at the time of her death several 
years ago, and is allowed to remain unfinished. Her sons and 
daughters, who inherited the estate, have neither the love or 
taste for luxury that caused their mother to be called ' ' Dona 
Monte Cristo." 

The house at Santiago was designed by a French architect, 
and entirely constructed, decorated and furnished by French 
artists and artisans. It is of the Ionic order of architecture, 
with brick stuccoed to resemble brown stone, panels of blue 
and yellow fiance, tiles set in the facade, imposing cornices, 
and graceful pilasters to relieve the flatness of the walls. It is 
surrounded by a typical French garden with an abundance of 
flowers and perhaps the best lawn in Chile, for turf does not 
grow well there. 

The interior decorations are expensive and artistic, but 
scarcely appropriate for a private residence. They were done 
by the same men who adorned the grand opera house at Paris, 
and would look better in the foyer of a theater or a restaurant 
than the home of a private family. The entrance hall, which 
is a noble apartment, and the grand staircase are adorned with 
frivolous French scenes — the Place de la Concorde on the occa- 
sion of a festival ; the race course at Longchamps, a mask ball 
at the grand opera house at Paris, and a striking representa- 
tion of .that center of the world's frivolities, the focus of the 
boulevards and the avenues at the Grand Hotel in Paris. 
There has been a great deal of criticism of these decorations. 
The house has been one of the principal show places in Santi- 
ago ever since it was erected. Strangers have always been 
admitted to share with Madame Cousino the enjoyment of its 
gorgeousness. Thoughtful people usually suggest that her 
decorator might have chosen more appropriate subjects for 
the mural paintings, but those familiar with the taste and the 
career of that remarkable woman feel that there was no 
incongruity in the selections. 



392 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

There are other beautiful residences in Santiago, and many 
of them, particularly those along the Alameda, have imposing 
f acades ; but the real homes of Chile turn their blind side to 
the public, and their beauties and comforts are only revealed 
to those who have the privilege of entering them, and to those 
who catch minute glimpses through the big gates of wrought 
iron that protect them from intrusion. 

Senora Cousino had the reputation of being the richest 
woman in the world and her extravagance was a frequent 
theme of newspaper gossip in Europe as well as in Chile; but 
when the estate was settled after her death there was consid- 
erable surprise and disappointment at the low appraisement 
of the property. It was evident that her enormous income 
was not greater than her extravagance and that her property 
had depreciated in value considerably since the revolution. 
She left four children, two sons and two daughters, among 
whom the property was divided, but in comparison with her 
conspicuous hospitality and gaiety their lives are very quiet. 

Madame Cousino traced her ancestors back several centu- 
ries, and had a collection of their portraits. The ancestors of 
her husband also came to Chile early, and in the partition of 
the lands and spoils of the conquest both got a large share, 
which they kept and increased by adding the portion given to 
less thrifty and less enterprising associates, until the two large 
estates became the largest, most productive and most valuable 
of all Chile and were finally consolidated by marriage. While 
he lived he was considered the richest man in Chile, and she 
the richest woman, for their property was kept separate, the 
husband managing his estates and the wife her own, and peo- 
ple say she was the better administrator of the two. This fact 
he acknowledged in his will when he bequeathed all of his 
possessions to her, and she piled his Pelion upon her Ossa, 
until she had millions of dollars in money, flocks and herds 
that were numbered by the hundreds of thousands, coal, cop- 
per and silver mines, acres of real estate in the cities of Santi- 
ago and Valparaiso, a fleet of iron steamships, smelting works, 
a railroad, and various other trifles in the way of productive 
property, which yielded several millions a year. She tried 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 393 

very hard to spend her income and under the circumstances 
succeeded as well as could be expected. 

She had another park and palace, an hour's drive from 
Santiago, — the finest "estancia" or plantation in Chile, per- 
haps in all South America, and I do not know of one in North 
America or Europe that will equal it. This is called "Macul," 
and stretches from the boundaries of the city of Santiago far 
into the Cordilleras, whose glistening caps of everlasting snow 
marks the limits of "the widow's mite." In the valleys are 
fields of grain, orchards, and vineyards while in the foothills 
of the mountains, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle feed. 
Here she gave employment to 300 or 400 men organized under 
the direction of superintendents, most of whom were Scotch- 
men. She had one American in her employ at "Macul" whose 
business was that of a general farmer, but his time was mostly 
occupied in teaching the natives on the place how to operate 
labor-saving agricultural machinery. 

Farming in Chile is conducted very much as it was in Eng- 
land in old feudal times, each estate having its retainers, who 
are permitted to use tenements, or homes built for that par- 
pose, and are paid for the amount of labor they perform. 
These peons are not permitted to accept employment from 
any one except their landlord without his permission, and are 
always subject to his call for purpose of war or peace. It is 
said that the Senora could marshal a thousand men from her 
two farms if she needed them. 

The vineyard of "Macul" supplies the market of Chile with 
claret and sherry wines, and the cellar, an enormous building 
500 feet long by 100 wide is still kept constantly full. On this 
farm she had valuable imported stock, both cattle and horses, 
and her racing stable was the most extensive and successful in 
South America. The Madame took a great interest in the turf, 
attended every racing meeting in Chile, and always bet heav- 
ily upon her own horses. 

While the people of Chile are no more enterprising than 
those of the Argentine Republic they have some different 
traits. Two of the chief ones are pride and patriotism. They 
resemble the Irish in many respects, in their wit, recklessness, 



394 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

their love of a scrap and their tendency to hit a head when- 
ever they see it, no matter to whom it belongs. A Chilano 
fights for the love of fighting, as Terence Mulvaney expressed 
it in one of Kipling's stories. They are ardent lovers, devoted 
friends, vicious and vindictive enemies. They have little self- 
control, but are impetuous, impulsive, passionate and gener- 
ous. They make fine soldiers, but have no sense of mercy. 
They are the best fighters in South America, having a mixture 
of the Spanish blood and that of the Aracanian Indians, who 
were never subdued by the conquisitadores. 

The great obstacle, however, to the development of Chile, 
the great handicap to her common people and the curse of the 
country, are the large estates and the system of peonage, 
under which a poor man has no chance of acquiring property 
or advancing his interests and condition in life. The Argen- 
tine Republic enjoys the advantage of possessing a vast area 
of public land where everybody can have a farm and enjoy the 
reward of his own labor. In Chile there is an inexorable law 
which prohibits individual advancement among the common 
people, and the painful realization of that fact has deprived 
the working classes of ambition and self-respect. 

Farming is conducted upon a large scale and scientific 
principles. The agricultural schools of Chile are well attended 
and exercise a wide influence upon the proper cultivation of 
the soil. The patron or haciendado keeps a close observation 
upon every part of the estate, and starts out every morning 
upon his pony, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a gay poncho, 
to supervise the work of his tenants and the peasants in his 
own employ. 

The landholding aristocracy of Chile are a highly educated 
and cultured people. They live in handsome houses, luxuri- 
ously furnished and adorned with works of art that indicate 
taste and refinement. They have libraries and go in for 
bindings and first editions and all kinds of fads. They are 
educated in music, and are much more advanced in social 
accomplishments than our own people. You seldom find a 
society woman in Santiago or Valparaiso who does not speak 
at least two languages, and most of them three. They are 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 395 

excessively formal with strangers, and are fastidious about 
matters of etiquette and dress. You can tell the tastes of a 
people from their shop windows, which in Santiago are as 
lovely and alluring as those of Paris. They are full of the lat- 
est fashions and novelties from every country. In fact, it is 
the boast of the people that they can buy anything in Santiago 
that can be bought in Paris. 

There are several large department stores and arcades and 
portales filled with little shops for the sale of jewelry, millinery 
and fancy goods, which indicates the extravagance and the 
luxurious tastes of the population. No city of the size of 
Santiago, 256,000 inhabitants, either in the United States or 
Europe, has so many fine stores or can show a more elaborate 
display of the gilded side of life. 

Religious toleration prevails and freedom of public worship 
is permitted. The civil rite of marriage alone is recognized 
by the courts, although it is customary for people in high life 
and the middle classes to have a second ceremony and receive 
the benediction of the church. Among the common people 
and the laboring element, however, marriages are invariably 
celebrated at the office of the registrar of vital statistics, and 
no fee is required. 

The cemeteries are open to Jews, gentiles and protestants, 
and are under the control of the municipal authorities. The 
spirit of liberty prevails in Chile more than in any other South 
American country except the Argentine Republic, and any 
attempt of the conservative party to interfere with the rights 
of the people or restrict the freedom that was secured by the 
liberals would provoke its overthrow. 

The army and the navy of Chile have reached an advanced 
state of perfection. The navy is eighth in strength among 
the nations of the world, being surpassed only by those of 
England, France, Germany, the United States, Russia, Italy 
and Japan. The annual appropriations for the support of the 
navy amount to $13,000,000, and for the army $11,000,000. 
During the five years from 1895 to 1900 over $200,000,000 has 
been spent by the government of Chile upon its army, navy 
and coast defenses. The army is modeled upon the German 



396 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

system, 24,000 strong - , and has German instructors in tactics 
and discipline, German uniforms also. The officers are fine- 
looking men, and are very numerous upon the streets of 
the city. 

The cathedral is rather an ordinary looking building from 
the outside, but the interior is handsome, and the archbishop's 
palace which adjoins it and fronts the central plaza is one of 
the largest and most imposing buildings in Santiago. 

There is a club near by which is equal to anything of the 
kind in the United States outside of New York City. It has a 
fine library, reading rooms, papers from all parts of the world, 
and is a favorite meeting place for politicians. 

Fronting the plaza on one side are the cathedral and the 
archbishop's palace, on another side the city hall and the gen- 
eral postoffice, the third side is occupied by hotels, and the 
fourth by business houses, which are surrounded by portales 
similar to those on the Rue de Rivoli and the Palais Royal in 
Paris — rows of small shops, cafds, where the people gather and 
promenade. 

The street-car service is excellent, although the motive 
power is mules. There is an electric plant in progress, how- 
ever, and an underground system similar to that in Washing- 
ton will be adopted very soon. All of the lines concentrate at 
the plaza in the center of the city, where you can find a car for 
any of the suburbs. The conductors here, as in other parts of 
Chile, are young women, who wear a neat livery and perform 
excellent service. It is a new field for women, but might 
properly be introduced elsewhere with equal success. The 
conductors are seldom insulted, and they show great tact in 
their treatment of refractory passengers. If they have trouble 
it is only necessary for them to blow a whistle and summon a 
policeman, who is found upon nearly every corner. 

The women conductors are quite independent, and have 
shown considerable capacity in caring for themselves. They 
had a strike in Valparaiso not long ago against some offensive 
regulation, and nearly all the women in town were up in arms 
to support them. 

The priests of the various parishes ride about the city of 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 397 

Santiago within carriages that bear marks of their profession 
and distinction. I saw one the other day with a picture of the 
crucifixion painted like a monogram upon either door, and I 
have seen other carriages bearing pictures of the saints in 
whose honor the parishes were christened. 

While the people of Chile are very far advanced in civiliza- 
tion, more so probably than those of any other country in 
South America, you still see and hear some odd things, and 
they still stick to the Spanish language. It seems impossible 
for the natives to grasp our English pronunciation, which is 
sometimes awkward when they have to use ordinary English 
names. For example, the common name of Jones is beyond 
their mastery. "J" in the Spanish language has the sound of 
"H," and the Spaniards pronounce every letter and syllable in 
a word, hence the Chilanos insist upon making two syllables 
out of Mr. Jones' name, and calling him Mr. "Ho-nees." 

They have similar trouble with Mr. Giles, whom they are in 
the habit of referring to as Mr. "Hy-lees." 

For several days I noticed the word "panqueque" upon the 
bill of fare at the hotel, and did not know what it was. There 
is a brand of wine from one of the Chilean vineyards with 
that name, and I supposed it was perhaps the same thing 
referred to, although it was difficult to understand why it 
should appear among the desserts on the menu at the dinner 
table and on the bills of fare for breakfast. The best way to 
find out about such things is to try them, and next morning, 
being in an experimental mood, I ordered a "panqueque," 
which, to my amazement, was an ordinary griddle cake. 
Then it dawned upon my dull perceptions that "panqueque" 
spelt pancake. I called the attention of the head waiter to the 
discovery, and he seemed quite astonished. He could talk 
English well, and claimed to be familiar with the cuisine of 
America. Therefore he did not see anything unusual in my 
discovery, and I rather think he wrote the bill of fare himself, 
for he remarked, in a surprised tone : 

"What do you call a pancake in America?" 

To see the aristocracy of Santiago at its best one must 
attend the opera, which is given four nights each week during 



398 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

the winter season by an Italian company brought over with 
full chorus and orchestra from Milan, Italy, and its perform- 
ances are as perfect here as there. The opera house, which is 
one of the finest in the world, surpassing everything in Lon- 
don, and equal to anything we have in the United States, is 
owned by the municipality, and equipped with costumes, prop- 
erties and scenery for all the standard operas and everything 
new that is successful in Paris or other European musical 
centers. The house is furnished free of cost, and the city 
government gives the manager a subsidy of $40,000 a year in 
cash. The seats and boxes are sold by subscriptions for a 
season of sixty nights, as in New York, and are paid for in 
advance. There is usually a guaranty fund also to protect the 
manager from financial loss. Those who lease boxes and seats 
for the season often sublet them to strangers, and it is not 
considered an impropriety, so that people who are spending 
only a few days in the city can go to the box office and obtain 
seats by paying the regular rates. The same company appears 
thirty nights during the season at Valparaiso under similar 
conditions and with a smaller subsidy. The singers in the 
chorus as well as the orchestra are all Italians, and the prin- 
cipal ballet dancers also come from Milan. The soloists are 
first-class. The people will not tolerate anything else, and the 
audiences are quite as interesting as the performers, for the 
dressing and the display of jewels is equal to that seen at the 
Covent Garden in London, the Grand opera house in Paris, or 
the Metropolitan in New York. It surpasses the displays at 
Berlin and other cities of Germany, where the people go to 
hear the music and not to show their clothes. 

There is a large foyer in which the people promenade 
between the acts, refreshment rooms where ices, wines, sand- 
wiches and other light refreshments are served, a gentleman's 
cafe, a smoking room and other conveniences. The president 
of the republic has a large box on one side of the stage, and 
the mayor of the city has one on the other side, which are 
ex-officio, and a novelty I have never seen before is mourning 
boxes, protected by screens, in which people who are not 
wearing colors or going into society can see without being 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 399 

seen, and enjoy the music in retirement. Above the foot- 
lights upon the stage is a long row of funnels which communi- 
cate the music by telephone to different residences of the city. 

Monday is a dies non in Chile. People have learned by 
long experience that they can expect little from their servants 
and employes on that day. They call it "San Lunes" — sober- 
ing-up day. A manufacturer goes to his shop Monday morn- 
ing to find that only a few of his hands have reported for duty, 
and even they are in a seedy condition. In some establish- 
ments, in places where labor is plenty, the hands who are 
absent on Monday get no work during the week, but this rule 
cannot be applied in most of the cities, because labor is so 
scarce that employers are at the mercy of their help, and are 
compelled to tolerate their delinquencies. 

The mistress of a household allows her servants a Sunday 
off in turn, but seldom expects them to report for duty on 
Monday, and is never surprised to receive a message from the 
police station. Carpenters, masons and other mechanics sel- 
dom work but five days in a week, for the reasons I have 
given, and there is a proverb that the shoeshops are never 
open on Monday. 

The same customs attend the celebration of legal holidays, 
and it requires five days for the people of Chile to express the 
patriotic emotions inspired by the "Diez y Ocho de Setiem- 
bre" — the 18th of September — or the "daisy-ocho," as it is 
familiarly called — the anniversary of Chilean independence. 
Everybody prepares for it. Houses are freshly painted, flag 
poles are raised over every roof, bonfires burn on the surround- 
ing mountains, fiestas are held in every park and plaza, special 
masses are sung in the churches, all the banks, business houses 
and manufacturing establishments are closed, schools are 
dismissed, labor is suspended on all the plantations, and every- 
body, young and old, great and small, engages in the festivi- 
ties with a zeal and enthusiasm that is seldom seen elsewhere. 

Chile's struggle for freedom dates from September 18, 
18 10, when the first revolutionary assembly met at Santiago, 
declared the independence of the colony from Spain, and 
appointed a provisional government. It was not, however, 



4 oo BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

until February 12, 1818, that Barney O'Higgins, the Irish 
patriot who had been the successful commander of its revo- 
lutionary forces, solemnly proclaimed an independent republic 
in the grand plaza of Santiago, in the presence of the army 
and a great concourse of people. O'Higgins, the bishop and 
all the officials there knelt and made vows to God that they 
would sacrifice their lives and their fortunes in maintaining 
their independence, and then marched up the valley, where on 
April 3 of the same year — 181 8 — they destroyed and captured 
the last remnant of the Spanish forces after a protracted battle 
and terrible carnage. 

Although the patriotic enthusiasm of the Chilanos is 
greatly to be admired, the wise people of the country have 
long felt that the celebration does more harm than good 
because of the drunkenness and the crime and distress which 
attend it. The poor people save up money the whole year 
round to pay for a grand spree on this occasion, and when it is 
over find themselves not only penniless but often deeply in 
debt as the price of their pleasure. The hospitals are filled 
with wounded, and there are always a number of deaths from 
violence and exposure. 

To correct these errors and promote the cause of temper- 
ance generally among the people a society called ' ' Liga Contra 
el Alcoholismo, " which literally means "a league against 
excessive alcoholism," has recently been organized by ex- 
President Montt and other prominent citizens of Chile. Its 
purpose is defined in its name, and it has already done a great 
deal of good. It is not a total-abstinence society. Its pro- 
moters are too wise to make such a suggestion in Chile, but it 
is their object to restrain by legislation and moral suasion the 
appetites of the people and cultivate habits of temperance 
and moderation. It is asserted in the preamble of the organi- 
zation of this society that there is more public drunkenness in 
Chile than any other country in the world, and any one who 
witnesses the "Diez y Ocho" will readily believe it. It is also 
asserted that the physical, mental and moral condition of the 
people is being degraded by the excessive use of alcohol. 
Congress is asked to pass laws regulating and limiting the 



SANTIAGO, THE CAPITAL OF CHILE 401 

sale of liquors and employers are urged to change the method 
of paying their hands. 

Ordinary factory hands and laborers in the cities of Chile 
receive from 40 to 80 cents a day, according to their skill. It 
is the custom to pay each hand 20 cents a day, called a 
"diario," in order that he may provide food for his family. 
He gets the remainder of his wages Saturday night, and 
usually spends every cent before Monday morning for drink 
and gambling. Few of the working people ever save money. 
There are no savings banks or building and loan associations. 
Under the leadership of an American gentleman the employes 
of the government railways have organized a mutual savings 
system known as the "Caja de Ahoros, " which is entirely vol- 
untary, and an arrangement is made with the paymasters to 
deduct a certain amount from their monthly wages and deposit 
it with the treasurer of the society, as an insurance fund. 
Similar organizations are found in several manufacturing 
institutions, but they are not encouraged by the managers, 
because the patrons are always begging for the money on 
deposit and offering all sorts of excuses and pretexts for with- 
drawing their savings, and thus making nuisances of them- 
selves. 

Saturday is beggars' day, when every mendicant is allowed 
to appear upon the streets and in the public places and solicit 
alms from house to house. On other days of the week none 
but licensed beggars are allowed to appear, and those consist 
of disabled soldiers, widows of dead soldiers, blind people and 
cripples, who obtain certificates at police headquarters which 
give them privileges ordinary beggars do not enjoy. 

On Saturday also the benevolent societies issue food and 
other aid to the needy. The places where aid can be obtained 
are duly advertised in the newspapers and are responded to 
by large numbers. 

Everybody has heard of beggars on horseback, but they 
are seldom seen except in Chile, where every Saturday the 
sight is a common one. Horses are plenty and cheap. Every- 
body rides in the country districts, and those who do not own 
animals can easily borrow them for the day. On the country 



4 o2 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

roads and in the villages there are hundreds of decrepit crea- 
tures going from house to house and from store to store and 
visiting the haciendas on horseback begging bread, old clothes 
and anything else that can be given away. 

Attached to the carriages in the cities and on the haciendas 
one sees fine horses, large, clean, spirited animals, as fine as 
any in the world, but the ordinary draft animals are ponies, 
which are used both for packs and to haul heavy carts. They 
are tough, strong and docile, will climb the steepest and 
roughest trails as sure-footed as mules, and are capable of 
great endurance. As pack animals they carry amazing 
weights and do not seem to mind what articles they are loaded 
with. You often see ponies laden with bureaus, tables, sofas, 
sewing machines, chests of drawers, iron bedsteads, mat- 
tresses, rocking chairs and every other kind of household 
furniture and utensils. The carts are high and have two 
wheels. There is usually one pony between the shafts and a 
second hitched outside with a saddle, upon which the teamster 
rides. Neither wears a bit, but they are driven with halters 
made of braided leather thongs. These ponies are said to be 
of Arabian ancestry, having been introduced here soon after 
the conquest. They make excellent saddle horses, having an 
easy, comfortable gait, good speed and great endurance. A 
first-class saddle horse, well bred, of large size, can be bought 
for $50, a well-trained hunter for $100 and the ponies I have 
described for from $10 to $15 each. 



XXV 
THE PRESIDENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 

The president of Chile lives in the upper corner of a vast 
and gloomy old building which is called the Moneda, because 
it was once used for a mint. It is large enough to accommo- 
date all the members of the cabinet and their clerks. Con- 
gress meets in a stately edifice only a few blocks away, but 
has recently been driven out of it by fire and has taken refuge 
in the University building until the congressional halls can be 
repaired. There are many other fine public buildings in 
Santiago, by far the most imposing from an architectural 
standpoint in all South America, and the private architecture 
is quite up to date. 

Spacious apartments in one corner of the Moneda are 
reserved for the president in connection with his offices. He 
does not always live there, although it is convenient for him 
to do so, but the apartments are kept up for his use at any 
time he may desire to occupy them, and all the presidents 
have made them available from time to time, although they 
may have retained their private residences elsewhere. 

In Chile, as in France and England, the ministry is respon- 
sible to the legislative branch of the government as the 
representative of the people, and not to the executive, 
although he appoints them ; and all legislation affecting the 
general policy of the country is supposed to originate with 
them. An individual member of congress may propose a 
financial measure, for example, but it is not likely to receive 
any attention unless its author happens to be the leader of one 
of the parties, and then it would not be expedient for him to 
do such a thing. At the beginning of every session the presi- 
dent submits a message recommending the legislation he 
desires, and sooner or later thereafter the different members 

4°3 



4 04 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

of his cabinet present drafts of laws in which those recom- 
mendations are formulated. These are discussed, amended 
and revised by congress as much as may be considered proper 
or permitted by the party leaders. Sometimes entirely new 
measures may be substituted with the assent of the cabinet, 
but if an important bill is rejected it is construed as a lack of 
confidence and the cabinet resigns. Thus, during the first 
two years of his administration, President Errazuriz was com- 
pelled to appoint six different cabinets because of the refusal 
of congress to accept financial legislation submitted by them. 
Unlike most of the South American countries Chile will 
not tolerate a boss. That was demonstrated ten years ago 
when President Balmaceda attempted to defy congress. As a 
warning for all future presidents and at an awful cost of lives 
and money he found that the scheme would not work. Bal- 
maceda was by far the best president Chile ever had — the 
ablest, the most progressive and the most popular, and in 
many respects the wisest, although he fell into a fatal error 
when he attempted to carry out reforms that congress would 
not indorse. It is said that he was influenced by the advice 
of his mother, who was a woman of strong character and 
stubborn purpose, but the army and the navy, the church and 
the plantation aristocracy sustained congress and the constitu- 
tion. After a bloody struggle Balmaceda was overcome, took 
refuge in the American legation and committed suicide. It 
was a bitter factional fight, but the feeling has disappeared 
and now almost everybody is willing to admit that Balmaceda 
was wise, honest and a great benefactor to his country. 

. The overthrow of Balmaceda restored to power the old 
clerical party, now known as the conservative, which is com- 
posed of the landed aristocracy, the old Spanish families, the 
church and the old-fashioned reactionary element that is 
found in all communities, but is more numerous in the Latin- 
American countries than elsewhere. The liberals have not 
been able to recover from the demoralization of their terrible 
defeat and are split into several factions under rival leaders 
known as liberals, democrats, radicals and Balmacedists. They 
all profess similar principles, but seek their application by 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 405 

different means and methods. The conservatives, although in 
a minority, are compact, harmonious and united by social as 
well as political coalition and have the powerful organization 
of the church to support and aid them. 

The constitutional inability of the President of Chile to 
dissolve the legislature of the Republic when it is crippled by 
a deadlock, has been the cause of great embarrassment, and 
occasioned the revolution of 1891 and the overthrow of Presi- 
dent Balmaceda. From 1888 to 1890 there was a political 
situation in Chile similar to that which exists at this writing 
(1899), and continual changes in the cabinet occurred because 
no political party was able to control a majority of the votes 
in the chamber of deputies. At the next election President 
Balmaceda took active measures to secure the return of a 
sufficient number of Liberal candidates to control the lower 
house, but he was not successful. Then he adopted another 
strategic movement and determined to defy practice and 
precedent and retain his cabinet in office regardless of votes 
or lack of confidence and refusals to adopt their recommenda- 
tions. He construed the constitution of Chile to be similar to 
that of the United States instead of France, which had been 
taken as a model, and declared that the executive had the 
authority to select his advisers without the approval of the 
lower branch of congress. Some of the ablest lawyers in 
Chile still hold this view, but the congress refused to accept 
it, and declined to vote the necessary supplies to carry on the 
government as long as the existing cabinet remained in 
power. 

Balmaceda yielded in 1890 and tried once more to secure a 
congress that would support him, but this also proved a failure 
and he again declared his cabinet independent of the caprice 
of the chamber of deputies. Congress retaliated as before by 
refusing to appropriate money for the offensive ministers to 
disburse. In January, 1891, Balmaceda, by decree, declared 
the appropriations of the previous year to be continuous until 
congress should otherwise provide. The Congress promptly 
pronounced the action of the president unconstitutional and 
revolutionary and declared his seat vacant. 



4 o6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

When peace was restored, after the fall of Balmaceda, and 
congress was firm in power, the presidential election of 1891 
was absolutely free; there was no coercion, corruption or 
unfair returns, and Admiral Montt remained in office for five 
years without feeling the restrictions that had been so odious 
to his predecessors; and he was enabled to keep in office a 
responsible minister during his entire administration up to the 
last year when the elections brought to the front new and 
ambitious men and awakened political animosities which have 
prevented necessary legislation. It was under such circum- 
stances that President Errazuriz was elected in June, 1896, and 
assumed office during that year. He has tried to organize 
cabinets first from one and then from another party in con- 
gress, and also by coalitions from several parties without 
success, and has never been able to keep his ministers in 
power for more than a few months at a time, the differences 
depending almost entirely upon financial legislation instead of 
religious reforms as was the case during the time of Balma- 
ceda. 

The peace of Chile is vexed by three international compli- 
cations. The first and most serious is the controversy with 
the Argentine Republic over the boundary line which in 1898 
became so acute that war seemed imminent. Although they 
maintained a bold and belligerent attitude both nations 
appealed to the United States to use its good offices in secur- 
ing a settlement, which happily was arranged through the 
appointment of Mr. W. I. Buchanan, the United States 
Minister at Buenos Ayres, as arbitrator. The southern 
section of the boundary line, which runs through an almost 
uninhabited district and is therefore of comparatively little 
importance at present, will be drawn by Queen Victoria who 
has appointed a commission to visit Patagonia and make a 
survey. The decision will be accepted by both governments 
and there is no further danger of hostilities growing out of 
the interpretation of the ambiguous treaty made by the two 
governments many years ago which says "the frontier shall be 
the division of the watershed in connection with the highest 
points of the Andes. ' ' 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 407 

The international question of second importance involves 
the future of the provinces of Tacna and Arica which are 
held by Chile in lieu of indemnity for the cost of the late war 
with Peru. On this point, however, Chile is not suffering 
either loss or anxiety because she derives a large revenue 
from that territory and will continue to do so as long as the 
question is unsettled. The treaty of peace provided that Peru 
must pay Chile $10,000,000 in order to recover her lost prov- 
inces, or that Chile must pay Peru $10,000,000 if the people of 
those provinces decide by vote to remain citizens of Chile 
rather than go back to Peru. The limit of time allowed Peru 
to redeem the pawned provinces expired in 1894, but she was 
unable to pay the indemnity, and Chile, not being prepared 
to pay Peru $10,000,000 at that time, granted an extension, or 
rather allowed a lapse without prejudice to either party. In 
1898, when Peru began to recover her prosperity, she pressed 
for a settlement and made a treaty under which it was pro- 
vided that the people of Tacna and Arica should have an 
opportunity to decide under which king they would serve ; the 
government of Italy being selected as an umpire to secure a 
fair decision. The congress of Peru has ratified this treaty, 
but the congress of Chile declined to do so and hung it up 
indefinitely. 

The long strip of desert where lie the nitrate mines from 
which Chile derives about $20,000,000 a year revenue, an 
average of $5.50 per capita of the population, was taken from 
Bolivia during the war of 1881, and will never be given back, 
although the conscientious citizens of Chile would like to have 
a lawful transfer which would console the conscience of the 
nation and enable it to show unclouded title to its most valu- 
able possessions, For several years an attempt has been made 
to induce Bolivia to sign a treaty ceding this section of terri- 
tory to Chile, but the Bolivian authorities have refused to do 
so even though Chile has offered them a seaport and a right of 
way across the desert to reach it. It has also been proposed 
that Peru convey the provinces of Arica and Tacna, now held 
by Chile, to Bolivia, provided Chile will release Peru from the 
payment of the $10,000,000 of indemnity, and Peru will release 



4 o8 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Chile from the same. In other words, Chile proposes that 
the territory in dispute be transferred to their neighbor Bolivia, 
so that she can have access to the sea and call everything 
square. 

The war with Peru made Chile very rich, the richest 
country in the world in proportion to her population. From 
the nitrate fields of Tarapaca alone, which were taken from 
Bolivia, up to ist of January, 1900, the government of Chile 
had received no less than $200,000,000 from export duties on 
nitrate alone, and if this enormous sum had been wisely 
applied to internal improvements, the development of the nat- 
ural resources of the country and the education of the people, 
it would have placed Chile among nations of the first class in 
civilization, but a large proportion of the money has been 
wasted, and more has been expended in the construction of 
fleets and fortifications, and in the support of an army which 
has diverted the young men of the country from profitable 
industry. 

The annual revenue of the government will average $40,- 
000,000 a year, with a population of less than 2,750,000. The 
public debt is comparatively small, amounting to about 
$83,000,000, which is secured by 1,250 miles of railway, 
appraised at $70,000,000; public lands valued at $40,000,000; 
nitrate property, $50,000,000; guano deposits, $5,000,000, and 
other property in the way of assets being valued at more than 
double the national indebtedness. The people of Chile have 
great wealth as well as the government. The farm lands 
under cultivation are assessed for taxation at $340,000,000, 
and the city real estate at $225,000,000, making a total of 
$565,000,000 or an average of about $188 per capita of the 
population. 

The relations between Chile and the United States have not 
been friendly for many years. The prejudice of the people of 
the former republic was excited by the attempt of our govern- 
ment to interfere in behalf of Peru during the War of 1879-81. 
We entered an earnest protest against the devastation of Peru 
by the Army of Chile, and sent a commission to both countries 
to tender our good offices in negotiating peace. As is often 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 409 

the fate of peace makers, we succeeded only in awakening the 
animosity of both countries, — that of Peru because we failed, 
and that of Chile because we attempted to intervene and 
prevent her from reaping the fruits of victory. 

This national prejudice against the United States was stimu- 
lated in a considerable degree by the jealousy of British trades- 
men who were then enjoying a monopoly of the foreign trade 
of Chile, and frequent misunderstandings aggravated the case. 
During the revolution of 1891 in Chile, matters came to a very 
acute stage. The sympathies of the United States were 
with President Balmaceda and the constitutional government, 
and when he was reduced to extremities and compelled to flee 
from the palace, he sought asylum in the American legation, 
which was then presided over by Patrick Egan, the Irish 
advocate, whose appointment as minister to Chile was severely 
criticised by the English colony in that country which is 
large and influential. When the revolutionists seized the 
capital they demanded the surrender of President Balmaceda, 
but our government declined to comply and he remained 
under its protection for several weeks. Mr. Egan's instruc- 
tions from President Harrison were to shelter and protect his 
guest until he was satisfied that Balmaceda would be given a 
fair trial and full justice by those who had overthrown his 
government. At the same time, President Harrison declined 
to recognize Mr. Montt who had been sent to Washington by 
the revolutionists with credentials as their minister, and who 
made frequent applications to the Department of State for 
an audience in his official capacity. 

In the midst of these complications, the United States 
marshal of the southern district of California seized and held 
the steamship "Itata" of the Chilean line, which was being 
loaded with arms and ammunition for the insurgents at the 
port of San Diego. This created a tremendous excitement 
in Chile, and frequent threats of war were made unless the 
"Itata" and her cargo were released. The vessel was tied up 
in the courts until it was too late for her cargo to be of any 
value to the revolutionists, and the dispute was amicably 
settled. But the irritation it caused in Chile did not subside. 



4 io BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

Another cause of complaint on the part of the successful 
insurgents was the suspicious movements of the United States 
cruiser "Baltimore" which then lay in the harbor of Valparaiso 
under the command of Admiral, then commander, Schley. 
Nearly all of the Navy of Chile joined the revolution against 
Balmaceda, and Admiral Jorge Montt was the principal leader. 
On the other hand the greater part of the army remained 
loyal to the government. It was therefore an odd sort of 
conflict, a fleet of ships at sea attempting to carry on war with 
an army on land, and the revolutionists did their most serious 
damage by occupying the principal seaport towns and seizing 
the custom houses which furnished almost the entire revenues 
of the government. During this time the "Baltimore" was 
cruising up and down the coast looking after the interests of 
American citizens, and having the privilege of entering and 
leaving the blockaded ports, at will. Commander Schley was 
accused of furnishing information concerning the movements 
of the fleet to the Balmaceda government. He was also 
accused of assisting to cut the cable so that the revolutionists 
were deprived of the privilege of communicating with each 
other and the outside world. Both of these charges were 
untrue, and a careful investigation failed to show any violation 
of the neutrality act on the part of the "Baltimore," although 
it did not satisfy the prejudices of those who sympathized 
with the revolution. Towards the close of the war, after the 
revolutionists had obtained control of Valparaiso and the 
capital, occurred the lamentable tragedy referred to in diplo- 
matic correspondence as "The Baltimore Case," which 
brought the two nations to the verge of war. Unfortunately, 
two boats' crews from the "Baltimore," on shore leave, 
landed in Valparaiso on October 16, 1891. In a saloon, in a 
rather disreputable quarter of the city, an altercation arose 
between Chilean sailors and some of the Baltimore's men. In 
the row one of the Chileans was knocked down. The Yankee 
sailors were then assaulted with fists, clubs, knives, and 
revolvers. They sought to escape by boarding a street car. 
The car was pursued by a mob and the sailors were dragged 
from the car. A riot followed. More than one hundred 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 411 

armed men fell upon the sailors after they were dragged from 
the car. Charles W. Riggin, boatswain's mate, was killed 
instantly. William Trumbull, a coal heaver, died from injuries 
received at the hands of the mob. Thirty-six others were 
more or less seriously injured. Commander Schley caused 
an investigation to be made, and on October 22 telegraphed 
the results to General Benjamin F. Tracy, then Secretary of 
the Navy. 

The latter recently related the hitherto secret history of the 
affair as follows: "When Commander Schley's report was 
received at the Navy Department, Mr. Blaine, the Secretary 
of State, was out of town. I presented the report to the 
President, who, after going over it carefully, sent a note to 
the Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Matta. The note 
was very carefully worded and extremely mild in its tone. In 
substance, it stated that the report of the trouble had been 
received and that the President hoped that the seriousness of 
the affair had been exaggerated. If, however, the first report 
proved to be a correct statement of the case, the President 
expressed himself as confident that the Chilean Government 
would make whatever reparation was necessary. 

"Soon after this note was sent, Mr. Blaine returned to 
Washington and was made acquainted with the situation. No 
reply to the President's note was received for a long time. 
In the interval Mr. Blaine tried to arrive at some understand- 
ing with the Chilean minister at Washington, Senor Pedro 
Montt. In this he failed, and, at the end of several weeks, 
the reply from the Chilean Government was received. It was 
so insulting that it might almost have been a cause for war in 
itself. It sought to justify the assault on our sailors and 
dodged the issue in every way possible. 

"Then Congress met and the President dwelt at length upon 
the incident in his message. While Congress was considering 
the matter on January 20, 1892, Minister Montt presented a 
note from his Government stating that Mr. Egan was per- 
sona non grata, and that the Chilean Government would be 
pleased to have another minister sent. This note, coming 
on top of the first one, and neither accompanied by an apology 



412 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

or an expression of the desire to make any reparation, Presi- 
dent Harrison sent what was practically an ultimatum to the 
Chilean Government. In that note the President held that the 
assault on the Baltimore's men was unprovoked; that the 
Valparaiso authorities had flagrantly failed in their duty to 
protect our sailors; that he could not think of recalling Mr. 
Egan, and that he should insist upon an indemnification of the 
families of the sailor's killed and of the sailors themselves who 
had been injured, together with an apology from the Chilean 
Government. 

"This note dispatched, our preparations for an emergency 
began. These were carried on so quietly that it never has 
been known just how far we went. The reason that we were 
able to keep what we were doing from the public was that all 
the preparations on the part of the Government were con- 
trolled by one person, who carried on all his transactions with 
principals and not with agents. In this way the Government 
was saved a considerable amount in commissions. 

"As soon as the note was sent the Chairmen of the Com- 
mittees on Naval Affairs of the Senate and House were invited 
to a conference with the Secretary of the Navy. Whatever 
that official did after that was with the approval of those 
gentlemen. The first order issued was to make every available 
ship in the navy ready for immediate service. 

"Next, all available coal on the Pacific coast was bought 
by the Government, and the largest steamer owned by Collis 
P. Huntington was chartered to carry it to Montevideo. There 
were 5,000 tons of this coal. Two cargoes were purchased in 
London and two more cargoes in New York, all to be delivered 
at Montevideo. Then the American line, or what is now the 
American line, steamer Ohio was chartered for a repair ship. 
She was sent to Boston and work was immediately begun on 
her to put her in shape for service. 

"These arrangements made, Captain Mahan was invited to 
consult with the Secretary of the Navy. Before the consulta- 
tions were over a plan of action had been completely mapped 
out. According to this plan, the first order to be issued was 
to concentrate the fleet. A point of concentration was agreed 



L 



PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF CHILE 413 

on, and this was to be telegraphed to the three fleet com- 
manders with the orders sent to them to begin operations. 
Admiral Gherardi was to be in command of the united fleets. 
"According to the plan laid out, after the fleets had con- 
centrated, they were to proceed to Chile, drive the Chilean 
men-of-war under the guns of the forts at Valparaiso, and 
then attack the whole coast line of Chile. The coal mines in 
the southern part of that country were to be seized, thus 
cutting off the coal supply for the warships of the enemy, and 
all other details were looked after. Then came Chile's note 
of apology and her offer of $75,000 indemnity, which was 
accepted. This was distributed among the sailors who had 
been injured and among the families of the dead." 



XXVI 
THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 

What is known to geographers as the Cordilleras de los 
Andes is the longest and the highest range of mountains in 
the world. It extends from Tierra del Fuego to the Isthmus 
of Panama, and although some of the peaks of the Himalayas 
are higher they are not as numerous or as accessible. There 
are two ranges of the Andes almost parallel, the second range 
being known as the Cordilleras de la Costa, which follows the 
coast line of the Pacific from Chile to Ecuador, being broken 
at intervals by vast deserts and being irregular in direction 
and in sequence. The main range, which is the backbone of 
the continent, is familiarly known as the Cordilleras. The 
shorter range is usually referred to as the Andes. 

South of the Straits of Magellan are two peaks rising more 
than 7,000 feet high in the center of a range that crosses the 
archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. By some prodigious con- 
vulsion those islands were separated from the continent and 
the chain was broken by the Straits of Magellan. On both sides 
of the straits the mountains rise to a considerable height 
and are covered with magnificent glaciers. Voyagers passing 
through the straits have the privilege of witnessing some of 
the sublimest scenery on earth. Mount Darwin rises 6,600 
feet and Mount Sarmiento 6,800 feet directly from the water, 
and both are covered with ice and snow almost to their feet 
during nine months of the year. Commencing there the Cor- 
dilleras run northward and form the boundary line between 
Chile and the Argentine Republic. The division as fixed by 
W. I. Buchanan, the United States minister, as arbitrator, is 
the "cumbre" or crest of the main range or the grand divide 
— the watershed between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The 
Cordilleras de los Andes continue an unbroken range to the 

414 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 415 

Caribbean sea and the Isthmus of Panama. The breadth of 
the base in Chile is from twenty to one hundred miles, a single 
chain ; in Peru and Bolivia it widens to 700 miles. The fork 
of the chain occurs near latitude 40 in the state of Valdivia, 
Chile, and from there the irregular Cordilleras de la Costa 
follow the shore, sometimes even dipping their feet into the 
sea. There are points along the coast of Chile where the 
mountains rise as high as 8,000 feet directly from the water. 
These two main ranges at intervals are united by transverse 
ranges called "bolsones," which in Spanish means the rungs 
of a ladder, and some of them have peaks with an elevation 
of over 20,000 feet. Between these titanic buttresses are 
elevated plateaus from 8,000 to 13,000 feet above the sea, 
which are called the "Puna," or the "great Andean basins." 
and are the most populous and highly-cultivated part of the 
continent. 

Bolivia is the most mountainous country of the world, and 
that portion of the great chain known as the Cordillera de 
La Paz, in the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca, is of surpassing 
grandeur — a colonnade of pure white summits, extending 
more than 150 miles almost in a direct line. No other group 
of peaks will compare with them. In Ecuador there is an 
irregular cluster of extinct volcanoes which rival those of 
Bolivia in beauty and picturesqueness, but lack their eleva- 
tions. In Bolivia the twelve peaks of the Cordilleras de La 
Paz rise above 20,000 feet. In Ecuador there are twenty 
volcanoes in a single cluster, and eighteen of them are covered 
with perpetual snow. The lowest is 15,922 feet in height, and 
the highest, Chimborazo, reaches an altitude of 22,500 feet. 
Three of the volcanoes are active, five are dormant and twelve 
are extinct. Eleven of the peaks have never been reached by 
any living creature except the condor, whose flight surpasses 
that of any other bird. Cotopaxi is the loftiest of active 
volcanoes, but it walls are so steep and the snow upon its 
breast is so deep that ascent is impossible. 

The loftiest mountain in the Andes is in dispute. It was 
formerly Chimborazo, in Ecuador, afterward Illampu, in 
Bolivia, and now Aconcagua, in Chile; but the controversy 



4 i6 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

cannot be settled until more exact measurements are made. 
Sir Martin Conway, the Irish Alpine climber, made an ascent 
of several of the highest peaks in Bolivia, and reported the 
summit of Illampu to be 25,250 feet. This was gratifying to 
the people of Bolivia, but after he went to Chile and climbed 
Aconcagua, which he reported to be 23,200 feet in height, he 
discovered an error in his observations on Illampu and knocked 
off 2,000 feet or so, so that the pride of the Chilanos might not 
be wounded. 

Very few of the measurements of the mountains in South 
America are accurate, but Professor Bailey of the Harvard 
observatory at Arequipa has collected all the data available, 
from which he has made a catalogue of 288 peaks over 10,000 
feet in height between the Isthmus of Panama and Cape 
Horn; 131 peaks over 18,000 feet, seventy-nine over 19,000 
feet, forty-two over 20,000 feet, six over 21,000 feet, thirteen 
over 22,000 feet and probably four peaks over 23,000 feet. 
Sixty-eight of these peaks are extinct volcanoes and five are 
active — two in Peru and three in Ecuador. 

The following is a list of peaks found by Professor Bailey 
to be more than 20,000 feet in height: 

Aconcagua, Chile 23,200 to 24,760 

Illampu, Bolivia 21,286 to 25,250 

Illimani, Bolivia 21,040 to 24,200 

Sahama, Bolivia 23,014 

Coropuna, Peru 22,800 

Chipicana, Boliva 22,687 

Apolobamba, Bolivia 22 ,374 

Tupungalo, Chile 22,469 

Montenegro, Chile 22,300 

Pallagua, Bolivia 22,300 

Huascar, Peru 22,051 

Parinacota, Bolivia 22,078 

Huallatierra, Bolivia 22,000 

Pomerape, Bolivia 21,721 

Huayna Potosi, Bolivia 21,882 

Cachi, Chile 21,685 

Misti, Peru 20,467 

Mururata, Chile 20,418 

Toroni, Bolivia 20,316 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 417 

Acaquilcha, Bolivia 20,250 

Iquima, Chile 20,190 

Juncal, Bolivia 20,181 

Choja, Bolivia 20,000 

Coypasa, Bolivia 20,000 

Cancoso, Bolivia 20,000 

Nevadavegro, Chile 21,685 

Calchaqui, Chile 21,626 

Chimboazo, Ecuador 21,611 

Llullaillaco, Chile 21,654 

Angelpico, Peru 21,215 

Pico de Tacora 21,252 

Mercedario, Chile 21,300 

Castillo, Chile . 21,356 

Pular, Chile 21,000 

Haundoy, Peru 21,090 

Descabezado, Chile 20,965 

Antofalla, Chile 20,889 

Famitina, Bolivia 20,650 

Panira, Chile 20,735 

Viscachillas, Bolivia 20,506 

Chachacomani, Peru 2 °,355 

Callinsani, Chile 20,530 

The snow line varies with the latitude except in the desert 
Atacama in sourthern Peru, where, because of the extreme 
dryness of the atmosphere and the infrequent snowfalls, the 
mountains are bare at elevations of 19,000 and 20,000 feet. El 
Misti, at Arequipa, with an elevation of over 20,000 feet, is 
often entirely free from snow, and the north side, which is 
continually exposed to the sun, seldom has snow on it for more 
than two hours at a time. On the south side of El Misti there 
is usually a beautiful cap of white. 

In Colombia the snowline is about 14,000 feet; in Ecuador, 
near the equator, about 17,000 feet; in Peru and Bolivia, 
about 15,000 feet, and in Chile from 13,000 feet in the 
neighborhood of Santiago to 3,000 feet at the Straits of 
Magellan. 

On the Cordilleras de la Costa there is no timber, and there 
is very little on the western slope of the main chain, the Cor- 
dilleras Real (Royal), as they are sometimes called. On the 
east slope, however, the timber rises directly to the snow line 



418 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and one may often stand upon a glacier and gaze into a valley 
filled with tropical vegetation. 

On the western slopes of the coast line there is no vegeta- 
tion whatever, except here and there in a narrow valley which 
can be irrigated. In the Puna, or the great plateau between 
the two ranges, barley, wheat, corn and other hardy crops 
grow at an elevation of 13,000 feet. Sheep feed to the snow 
line, the Alpaca and Vicuna being especially fond of the cold, 
bleak mountain sides, where a feeble tuft grass grows. 

The Cordilleras de la Costa are crossed by four railways, 
one from Valparaiso to Santiago, Chile; the second from 
Antofagasta, Chile, to Oruro, Bolivia; the third from Mollendo, 
Peru, to Lake Titicaca, where the summit is reached at an 
elevation of 14,666 feet at Crucero Alto; and the fourth is the 
famous Oroya road in Peru, which pierces the mountains at 
the Galena tunnel, 15,665 feet above tide water. The latter is 
the most elevated point reached by a railroad or where 
machinery is operated by steam. 

Since Professor Bailey prepared his catalogue there has 
been an eruption of Calbuco, which is listed as an extinct 
volcano, 4,730 feet above the sea level, in latitude 41.21 south, 
near the northern entrance to Smythe's channel, and just 
south of the city of Valdivia. There have always been evi- 
dences of previous activity of the crater of Calbuco, but no 
signs of activity have been reported since the arrival of the 
Spaniards until March, 1899, when clouds of smoke were noticed 
hovering about the summit. A few days later there was an 
eruption of great violence, and a rain of ashes fell upon the 
country around about, so heavy as to obscure the sun and 
make it necessary for the inhabitants to fly from their homes. 
The detonations were heard for at least one hundred miles 
distant, but there was no earthquake. Following the shower 
of ashes came a rain of hot stones and lava, which continued 
at intervals for several days and destroyed nearly everything 
for a radius of fifteen or twenty miles around the base of the 
mountain. The harvest, which was nearly ripe, was ruined ; 
the cultivated ground was covered with ashes and stones, the 
pastures became deserts, the springs dried up, the forests were 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 419 

destroyed by fires, and the inhabitants were compelled to 
permanently abandon that section of the country. Since then 
the eruptions have been periodical, but slight. 

The main chain of the Andes has never been crossed by a 
railway, although there have been a number of surveys. Pro- 
fessor Bailey has made a list of the passes between the Isthmus 
and the Straits of Magellan and finds that there are 123 places 
where the mountains may be crossed at an elevation of from 
2,756 to 16,047 f eet - There is no pass, however, north of 
Santiago, Chile, lower than 11,000 feet, and when you get 
up into Bolivia the lowest pass is that of Huesos, 13,573 feet 
above the sea. For the last twelve years a scheme has been 
projected to build a line of railway between Santiago, Chile, 
and Buenos Ayres, and the track has already been laid on 
both sides of the mountains up to an elevation of about 9,600 
feet, where it is proposed to construct a tunnel eleven miles 
long through the crest of the range under what is known as 
the "Uspallata" pass (12,700 feet), over which travelers are 
now carried in coaches between the termini of the railways. 
.Several contractors who have undertaken the work have 
failed, and the scheme has been practically abandoned because 
of the discovery of several better passes in the southern part 
of the republic. One, in particular, at Antuco, about 200 
miles south of Santiago, permits the mountains to be crossed 
at an elevation of 6,890 feet, and at the Tinguirica pass, which 
is about seventy-five miles south of Santiago, the elevation is 
only 10,500 feet. A company has already been organized for 
the construction of a railway over the Antuco pass, which 
offers to build a line from the town of Tome, across the bay 
from the city of Talcahano (you can see where it is if you will 
look at a map of Chile), through the departments of Coelemu, 
Itata, Chilan and Puchacai, to the town of Chosmalal in the 
Argentine territory, where it will meet a railway now under 
construction from Buenos Ayres and cross the continent 780 
miles to the port of Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic ocean, and 
1,180 miles to Buenos Ayres. 

Extensive surveys have been made and revised by the 
department of public works, and it has been found that a road 



420 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

360 miles long, crossing the mountains through a tunnel at an 
elevation of 4,980 feet, can be built for about $45,000 a mile, 
or a total of about $9,000,000, with a two and one-half percent 
grade. The cost of the Uspallata tunnel is estimated at 
$11,000,000 alone, so that the advantage of economy is in 
favor of the southern route. 

People now cross the Uspallata Pass on horseback and in 
coaches, and it is not an unpleasant journey during the 
summer months, although in winter, from April to October, 
it is exceedingly dangerous on account of the heavy snows that 
come on suddenly and fill up the roads until they are impass- 
able. It is now a journey of from nine to twelve hours 
between the termini of the railways, by coach or a good saddle 
horse, and many people cross in thirty-six hours on foot. At 
intervals along the journey, low cabins of heavy stone and 
cement called "casuchas," that look like enormous bake ovens, 
have been erected as refuges for those who are overtaken by 
snow, and many lives have been saved by these rude but sub- 
stantial shelters. The accommodations along the route are 
primitive and uncomfortable. The inns might be excused for 
their lack of comforts if they were only clean, but people who 
are accustomed to the trip arrange to start very early in the 
morning so as to arrive on the other side the same night and 
carry their provisions with them. If they are wise they take 
their bedding also. 

The Cumbre, the dividing ridge between the Pacific 
watersheds of the Andes, and the highest point on the trail, is 
12,795 feet above the sea, and there is always a gale blowing. 
Travelers are usually attacked with the disease known as 
"sirroche," in the northern countries of South America, but 
called "puna" in Chile, which is due to the rapid ascent from 
low to high altitudes and the rare atmosphere. The symp- 
toms are bleeding at the nose and ears and often the lungs, 
and a terrible nausea, with a suffocating feeling in the head, 
but nobody ever dies from this cause unless the heart is very 
weak and the pressure of the blood upon the veins causes the 
bursting of a blood vessel. The only danger is a landslide 
which may bury you under a pile of earth and stone, or a snow- 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 421 

storm which may drive you into a casucha and keep you 
there for a week in a cell not more than sixteen feet square 
without ventilation or any escape for the smoke from the 
fire which is absolutely necessary to cook your food and 
make your coffee. Those who are accustomed to the saddle 
will find the journey more comfortable on horseback because 
the roadway is not well kept and the jolting of the coach is 
tiresome. 

It is said that Don Ambrosio O'Higgins, the father of the 
famous Barney O'Higgins, the liberator of Chile, invented 
and built the "casuchas" when he was inspector of highways 
before the independence of the republic. They were originally 
intended for the mail carriers. Before the days of steam, all 
mails from Europe used to be carried over the mountains by 
couriers from Buenos Ayres instead of taking a cruise of 
indefinite length, often three or four months, during the 
stormy season around the Horn. Even now there is a gain of 
from six to eight days in time by sending the mail that way 
instead of on a steamer through the Straits of Magellan. The 
couriers go in threes. One carries the post bag, another the 
provisions and the third the blankets and extra clothing so 
that they can assist or fulfill the office of either in case he 
should be killed. It formerly took seven or eight days for the 
mails to cross from Los Andes, the principal starting place on 
the Chile side, to Mendoza in the Argentine Republic. Now a 
mounted courier often covers the distance between the railway 
termini in seven or eight hours. There has been no serious 
accident to a mail carrier since August, 1881, when Victor 
Lagos, and Juan Guerra were overtaken by an avalanche. In 
the spring their bodies were found under an enormous snow- 
drift. In July, 1880, a courier named Vidal Toro froze to 
death near the Bridge of the Inca with the thermometer 
twenty-four degrees below zero. 

The most picturesque part of the journey is the Puenta del 
Inca, where there is a natural bridge similar to that in 
Virginia, — an arch of stratified shingle, cemented together by 
deposits and petrifactions from the hot springs which bubble 
up out of the earth in the neighborhood. Their overflow 



422 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

forms the river Cuevas, which has eaten its way through the 
shingle and falls in a cascade below. The bridge is sixty feet 
high, 1 20 feet wide, and varies from twenty to thirty feet in 
thickness. The bottom is covered with stalactites and in 
several grottos around the neighborhood are numerous springs 
of hot water containing sulphur, iron and other minerals. 

There is no doubt that this bridge existed at the time of 
the Incas and was a station on the great highway which led 
from Cuzco north and south to the limits of the empire, and 
it was over this road that the tax gatherers passed annually to 
collect the tribute due their sovereign. The last collection 
was made in 1535 when Don Diego de Almagro, the partner 
of Pizarro in the subjugation of the Inca Empire, left Cuzco 
and passed south to conquer Chile. A little north of Jujuy 
he met the officers bearing the annual tribute to Cuzco and 
seized a portion of it. The remainder is supposed to have 
been buried near the Puenta del Inca. 

"When Almagro went to Chile he was accompanied by 
Paulo Tope, a brother of the Inca, and Villac Umu, the high 
priest of the nation. While he was away the natives, exasper- 
ated by the cruelty of the Spaniards, rose in rebellion and 
besieged Pizarro and his companions in Cuzco for seven 
months. Almagro followed the great highway of the Incas 
southward, crossed the bridge, and trying to go westward 
became entangled in the mountains, the dark forests and long 
stretches of barren plains, without shelter from the blasts that 
sweep down from the snows of the Andes. The cold was so 
intense that many of the soldiers were frozen, others went 
blind from a disease of the eyes called "surumpe," which is 
caused by constant exposure to the glare of the sun upon the 
snow. The Indian allies, who came from a much warmer 
climate, were unable to endure the severity of the Chilean 
winter, and many died from cold and when hunger overtook 
them, the miserable survivors ate the dead bodies of their 
countrymen. It was one of the most melancholy and dis- 
astrous marches on record, but Almagro finally passed over 
into the beautiful valley in which Coquimbo now stands, and 
remained in camp there in the midst of one of the richest 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 423 

garden spots on earth until his troops could recover from their 
unparalleled exposure and fatigue. Then he crossed the 
desert of Atacama to Arequipa, a most hazardous undertak- 
ing. No captain of this generation would dare attempt it, and 
it is a wonder that Almagro and his men survived. 

It is probable that the Incas knew of the curative proper- 
ties of the springs around El Puenta del Inca, because the first 
Spaniards to arrive mention the discovery of enormous tambos 
or hotels which had been erected there for the accommodation 
of visitors, and one especial "tambillo" intended for the king 
and his court, which is said to have been erected during the 
year that William the Conqueror invaded England. 

There are many legends concerning this picturesque 
locality. One of the stories is that an arriero, or mule driver, 
going over the bridge one day, lost one of his animals and 
followed its trail into the mountains. Three or four miles 
from the bridge he was surprised to see a man seated with his 
back against a rock and a gun beside him as if he were 
enjoying the scenery. As he made, no answer when addressed, 
the arriero laid his hand on his head which immediately 
dropped off and rolled over on the ground. The man had 
been dead forty years and the body was partially petrified. 
From papers found upon his person it appeared that he was 
an officer of the Spanish Army and after the defeat at Maipo 
had attempted to make his escape across the mountains to 
Mendoza. 

The Inca's bridge was at one time the headquarters of a 
famous Italian bandit named Farina who robbed the silver 
trains that passed over the mountains. After he had suc- 
ceeded in stopping the traffic he retired from the business and 
opened a hotel in Valparaiso. Upon his identity being dis- 
covered he escaped to Buenos Ayres, where he kept a gam- 
bling house for many years until his death. 

In 1879 a young merchant of Valparaiso, named Rafael 
Tapia created a sensation that will never be forgotten. Being 
oppressed by financial complications, he informed his wife that 
he must visit Buenos Ayres on business, and after a tender 
farewell of his family he started upon his journey. Having 



424 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

reached the Inca's bridge he drew his revolver, led his horse 
to the edge of the precipice, shot the animal in the head and 
watched its carcass roll down the rocky slope. Then he 
unpacked his traveling bag, arrayed himself in fresh linen, a 
white tie, white gloves and full evening suit, drank a bottle of 
champagne that he carried in his bag, and then shot himself 
through the heart. His body was found a few days later rest- 
ing comfortably against a great rock, with the empty bottle on 
one side and the empty revolver on the other, while in his 
pockets was a formal adios to all his friends and a request 
that they would remember that he died as he had lived, like a 
gentleman. He was buried by the roadside and a rude 
wooden cross now marks the spot. 

The scenery on the journey across the mountains is both 
picturesque and imposing and furnishes splendid views of 
Aconcagua, the highest mountain in America, which measures 
23,200 feet, and the volcano Tupungato, which is 22,015 ^ ee ^ 
in height. 

The proposed tunnel which was to carry the railway under 
this pass is said to have involved the most complicated engi- 
neering problems ever attempted. The railway track was 
brought up on the Argentine side by a series of "rack sections. " 
as far as the mouth of the first tunnel, called El Navaro, which 
was to be 5,325 feet long. The Quedebra Blanca was then to 
be crossed by a steel viaduct, which would carry the track to 
the second tunnel, known as Las Cuevas, which was 15,195 
feet long and showed the highest elevation on the line. On 
the Chile side the mountains fall so rapidly that it was 
necessary to build a series of helicoidal tunnels, like those on 
the Saint Gothard line in Switzerland, describing a complete 
corkscrew to overcome the grade in a series of tunnels 27,840 
feet long and dropping 2,762 feet in that distance. 

People in Chile told me that the cunning and cruel condor, 
which used to carry off lambs and kids and even children and 
sweep down on the unwary traveler in the mountains, is 
almost exterminated. This tiger of birds is now seldom seen 
except in the southern ranges of the Andes, where the popula- 
tion is sparse. There it still preys upon the flocks and hen- 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 425 

roosts and is dreaded by farmers and frontiersmen. Some 
years ago the congress of Chile passed an act declaring the 
national bird a public nuisance and offering a bounty of $5 
for every condor killed. This reduced the number rapidly at 
a cost of several thousand dollars to the public treasury, and 
they are now as scarce as the baldheaded eagle in the United 
States. The majority of people of Chile have never seen any- 
thing but the miserable and repulsive specimens that are kept 
in the zoological gardens. Condors do not thrive in captivity. 
The rare atmosphere and the low temperature of the mountain- 
tops are necessary to their existence. 

Passing over the Andes on muleback or in a railway train, 
black specks in the sky are often pointed out to unsophisticated 
travelers as condors "soaring in the blue empyrean," as we 
read in the old geographies, and it is just as well for tender- 
feet to believe what is told them and enjoy the satisfaction of 
having seen one. You occasionally hear prospectors tell of 
condors haunting the mule trails in the interior, waiting for 
some poor exhausted beast to lie down and die. They are said 
to smell carrion farther than it can be seen. No doubt a mys- 
terious intuition informs them when animals are about to peg 
out, but scientists insist that the atmospheric vibrations make 
it impossible for odor to be conveyed a long distance. It is a 
fact, however, upon which everybody agrees, that a condor 
will invariably arrive at the death bed of a mule or a sheep 
before the victim breathes its last, but it will always remain 
out of range as long as human beings are seen in the neigh- 
borhood. Although the old song says, 

"Next comes the condor, awful bird, 
On the mountains' highest tops, 
Has been known to eat up boys and girls, 
And then to lick its chops," 

condors rarely attack children or any other human beings. 
Hunters who were working for the bounty used to kill an old 
mule or a horse and then lie in ambush near the carcass. To 
shoot it on the wing is entirely out of the question, for it flies 
at altitudes such as no other bird attains. The condor hatches 
its young among snow-covered crags, often at an altitude of 



426 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

20,000 feet, and can endure a range of temperature in which 
human existence is impossible. It is equally at home upon 
the snowy peaks and upon the burning sands of the Chilean 
deserts. With a sweep of wing from nine to twelve feet in 
extent, its flight is so swift that it can sail out of sight in a 
very few moments. Observers have timed the flight of a 
condor, and claim that it is superior to that of an eagle. 

Poisoning condors is said to be impossible. A stomach 
that will relish the carrion upon which it usually feeds is said 
to be proof against poison. 

The government of Chile has leased the Island of Juan 
Fernandez, sacred to the memory of Robinson Crusoe, to 
a firm of Germans, who have erected a canning factory and 
are putting up fish, lobster and crabs for South American 
market. They also have herds of cattle and goats on the 
ranges, and ship a good deal of fresh beef to Valparaiso. The 
goats are raised for their skins and are descended from the 
very animals that furnished food for Robinson Crusoe. 

The island is situated about 400 miles west of Valparaiso 
and the leasees send a sailing ship back and forth with 
regularity. There is quite a town at Cumberland Bay, com- 
posed of their employees. Occasionally parties of sportsmen 
from Chile go over to Juan Fernandez for shooting, and it is 
a favorite resort for naval vessels as it offers a good opportunity 
to give the men liberty without exposing them to the tempta- 
tions of city life. The island is about twenty-three miles long 
and ten miles wide, at the broadest part, and it is covered with 
beautiful hills and lovely valleys, the highest peaks reaching 
an elevation of 3,000 feet. The landscape and many of its 
topographical features are correctly described in the story, 
but Defoe located it in the Caribbean Sea near Trinidad. The 
story of Robinson Crusoe follows closely the experience of 
Alexander Selkirk, as related by him to Daniel Defoe after 
his return to England. 

Selkirk was a son of a shoemaker and tanner, a man of 
means at Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland, and was born in 1676. 
Being a wayward boy he ran away from home and took to the 
sea in early life. In 1701 he was sailing master, or chief 



THE BACKBONE OF THE CONTINENT 427 

mate, of the Cinque Ports, one of a fleet of privateers sent 
out from England to the South Seas under Captain Damphier. 
After the death of Captain Charles Pickering, who was 
friendly to Selkirk, Lieutenant Thomas Straddling was 
appointed to command the vessel, and while cruising along 
the shores of Mexico, had a quarrel with his first mate which 
grew fiercer and fiercer until the vessel reached Juan 
Fernandez, where Selkirk was marooned for mutiny. He 
was sent ashore with his sea chest and all of his effects, and 
furnished with tools, arms and ammunition so that he might 
sustain himself. The shores abounded with fish and the 
mountains with goats, so that there was no danger of star- 
vation, and Selkirk relates in his journal that as time wore on 
he became reconciled to his situation and was "Monarch of 
all he Surveyed." The faithful Friday was a Mosquito Indian 
from Nicaragua who had been abandoned at Juan Fernandez 
by the captain of his ship who landed there for fresh water 
and fresh meat some weeks before the arrvial of the Cinque 
Ports. 

In 1708 another privateering expedition was sent out from 
England, composed of two vessels called the "Duke" and the 
"Duchess," under the command of the same Captain 
Damphier, and they arrived at Cumberland Bay on the 31st 
of January, 1709. Selkirk had been forgotten and the officers 
and sailors were astonished to find him still alive. Several 
men in the crew had sailed with the Cinque Ports and 
remembered distinctly the circumstances under whieh he was 
marooned. Captain Dover of the privateer "Duke," invited 
Selkirk to come aboard his ship and offered to fit him out with 
clothing. On the recommendation of Captain Damphier he 
was afterward commissioned as mate of that vessel. Thus, 
after a residence of four years and four months upon the 
island, Selkirk was rescued by the same man who deserted 
him there. His remarkable experience seemed to have 
softened his temper and subdued his spirit for he made a 
good record and maintained good discipline during the rest of 
the cruise and assisted in .the capture of several prizes-of-war, 
which brought the officers and crew of the "Duke" prize 



428 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

money to the amount of ^i 70,000, of which Selkirk received a 
large share, being third in rank on the vessel. 

At the end of the cruise he returned, a rich man, to his 
native Largo and there intended to spend the remainder of 
his life. He built a fine house and a boat, and spent his time 
sailing, fishing and in solitude upon which cupid intruded. 
Selkirk fell in love and eloped with a girl by the name of 
Sophie Bruce, but the marriage did not turn out happily and 
in 18 1 7 he entered the regular navy and died a lieutenant on 
board the frigate "Weymouth," in 1723. Several years later 
a widow named Frances Candis came to Largo to claim his 
property. She produced documents to prove that she had 
married him in 1720. Selkirk left no children but his nephews 
and nieces were numerous and their descendants form a large 
part of the population at Largo, in Fifeshire, where his sea 
chest, a cocoanut-shell cup which he used at Juan Fernandez 
and other relics of his exile are still exhibited to travelers. 

During his stay in London, Selkirk was a frequenter of the 
coffee houses in Fleet street and it was there that Daniel Defoe 
heard his story. 



XXVII 
SOUTHERN CHILE AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO 

The agricultural part of Chile, which lies south of Val- 
paraiso, is being rapidly developed, and the cities of Talca- 
huano, the principal sea port and Concepcion, the commerical 
metropolis of that section, are full of enterprises and worthy 
of the pride of their inhabitants. These and other cities of 
southern Chile are quite as much up-to-date as the correspond- 
ing agricultural centers in the United States and are growing 
as rapidly. There is a considerable impulse to immigration 
and an excellent sort of colonists is coming over from 
Germany, Norway, Sweden and other countries in the north 
of Europe. Much business is done in wool, corn, wheat and 
flour. The commercial enterprises are largely German. 
Wheat culture is increasing rapidly as the agricultural colonies 
move southward into the colder regions. Modern roller flour 
mills are being erected, and Chile flour is now sold in com- 
petition with that of California all the way up the coast as far 
as Panama. Five lines of European steamers touch regularly 
at Talcahuano bringing general cargoes and carrying back 
the produce of the country. 

Scientific agriculture is making greater progress in Chile 
perhaps than in any other American country perhaps except 
the United States especially in rural economy, arbor-culture 
viti-culture. The breeding of cattle and horses, has long been 
one of the most important and profitable industries, and is 
being encouraged by private associations as well as by the 
government. In fact all branches of education receive 
national and private encouragement in Chile, and the school 
system, which is supported from the tax on nitrate is no doubt 
the best of any of the South American Republics. The late 
President Balmaceda made a hobby of public schools and 

429 



43© BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

particularly primary education, and secured the passage of a 
compulsory education law, which was enforced with con- 
siderable vigor while he was in power. The University of 
Santiago, the head of the educational system of the country, 
has from twelve to fifteen hundred students and the pro- 
fessional schools are well kept up and well attended. There 
is no country in the world where the upper classes are so 
thoroughly educated, and few of the peons are illiterate. In 
this respect Chile is far in advance of other South American 
Republics. 

Forty miles south of Talcahuano and connected with that 
city by railway are the mining towns of Lota and Coronel, 
where Don Matias Cousino opened the first coal mines in 
South America in 1855. The coal is inferior to our ordinary 
bituminous, — is half way between lignite and true coal and 
belongs to the lower tertiary formation. In the Lota districts 
the seams run under the sea and the shafts are immediately 
upon the bluff that lines the shore so that the cars that enter 
the pits can be hauled to the end of the mole and dumped 
immediately into the bunkers of the steamers. The Lota coal 
mines have an annual output of about 400,000 tons, and are 
operated by electricity, the power being obtained from a water 
fall about six miles distant. The coal is hauled out from the 
shaft by an endless chain with an ingenious arrangement 
designed by a Belgian engineer. The miners are mostly 
natives and are well treated. The towns and everything 
around Lota and Coronel including several large smelters 
belong to the Cousino family or are controlled by them. 

Some of the finest scenery in the world is to be found in 
Smythe's Channel, the strait or sound which separates the 
archipelago of southern Chile from the main land; but the 
passage is dangerous and the British insurance companies 
will not permit steamers to go that way owing to the lack of 
lighthouses and proper charts. The German steamers, how- 
ever, usually take the risk much to the advantage of their 
passengers, who not only are able to enjoy a voyage quite as 
picturesque as that through the famous inland Sea of Japan, 
but escape the terrors that attend the passage down the west 



SOUTHERN CHILE AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO 431 

coast below Talcahuano where the surf is always high and 
storms are frequent. 

A lighthouse has recently been established by the govern- 
ment of Chile at Cape Pillar, the western entrance to the 
Straits of Magellan, which is a narrow and dangerous passage, 
and seldom could be entered at night until this improvement 
was made. Some years ago the steamer on which I was 
making a cruise reached Cape Pillar about three o'clock in the 
morning and was compelled to slow down until it was light 
enough to see the entrance. In the meantime a terrible gale 
came on which drove us 350 miles out of our course. It was 
four days before we got back to Cape Pillar again. Cape 
Pillar is a rugged barren rock, 310 feet high, but on the other 
side the peaks run up to 4,350 feet. 

The passage through the straits is usually attended by 
rain, mist and snow. An Irish friend, who formerly lived 
there, while describing the climate, once remarked that every 
rain was a snowstorm. The latitude of the Straits of 
Magellan is about 53 south, nearly that of Sitka or Cape 
Farewell, the southernmost point of Greenland, and Puenta 
Arenas the only town, has a climate much like the Klondike. 
There is little vegetation except along the water's edge and 
the snow line on the mountains comes down nearly to the 
water, while dazzling glaciers of bluish green ice are imbedded 
between craggy and barren hills and often rise to the crests 
of the mountains. These masses of ice are as imperishable as 
the glaciers of Greenland, and add a feature to the scenery 
that is not found elsewhere within the ordinary course of 
steamers. Our vessel tied up to a glacier one night in the middle 
of the Straits until the crew had chopped enough ice to fill the 
refrigerators and last until it arrived in England. It is a 
region of marvelous sunsets as well as rugged scenery, and if 
one were always sure of getting clear weather, I should 
recommend the voyage to everybody. 

The Straits are ordinarily about as wide as the Hudson 
River although the height of the mountains is much greater. 
Mount Warden, the first peak to be seen after entering at 
Cape Pillar is 4,360 feet high. Mount Victoria is 2,900 feet 



432 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

and there are many others from three to four thousand feet, 
with Mount Darwin (6,600) and Mount Sarmiento (6,800) 
crowning the group. 

Mount Sarmiento stands in what is known as "Cockburn 
Channel," not far from the Pacific, and on clear days its 
summit can be distinguished from the decks of passing ships. 
The beauty of this peak is much enhanced by numerous blue- 
tinted glaciers, which descend from the snowy cap to the sea, 
and look, as Darwin, the naturalist, who once saw it, said, "like 
a hundred frozen Niagaras." 

There are other mountains quite as beautiful but they sit 
in an atmosphere which is seldom as clear as that which 
surrounds Sarmiento and cannot often be seen by voyagers. 
That chain of mighty granite vertebrae, which extends from 
Alaska to Cape Horn, and forms the spinal column of the 
hemisphere, ends in grandeur at the edge of the antartic circle. 
The mountains hug the Pacific coast, and below what was 
once the southern boundary of Chile, they seem to have once 
been shattered by a convulsion, in which mighty masses of 
rocks were thrown off into the ocean to form the numberless 
islands that compose the Patagonian Archipelago. The same 
upheaval broke the mountain chain and left Tierra del Fuego 
separated from the continent by narrow channels of water 
with a depth to which the plummer has never reached, forming 
a safe and protected passage for navigators, for whom the 
incessant tempests of Cape Horn possess the greatest dread. 

The only town in the Straits of Magellan is Puenta Arenas, 
a free port which was formerly a penal colony of Chile, and 
is now a very important market and supply point for the 
miners of Tierra del Fuego, the ranchmen of Patagonia and 
for passing steamers. It has a population of about 12,000 
people representing all the tribes and races of mankind and it 
is not safe to ask a man where he came from or what his name 
was before his arrival. The country back of Puenta Arenas is 
pretty well taken up with sheep ranches and a large amount of 
wool is shipped to Europe from that place. Although the 
climate is severe, the sheep seem to thrive and although uncul- 
tivated, the wool is of excellent quality. A large trade is done 



SOUTHERN CHILE AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO 433 

in furs and skins and the prettiest things to be bought at 
Puenta Arenas are ostrich robes made of the breasts of young 
birds. Seals are plenty along the rocks of the coast, but their 
fur is not so good as that of the northern zones. In Patagonia, 
ostriches are not bred as at the Cape of Good Hope, but run 
wild and are gradually being exterminated. The Indians 
chase them on horseback and catch them with a bolas, — two 
heavy balls upon the end of a rope, woven of leather. Grasp- 
ing one ball in the hand they gallop after the ostrich, and whirl- 
ing the other ball around their head like a coil of lasso, they 
let go when near enough to the bird, and the two balls still 
revolving in the air, if skillfully directed, will wind around 
the long legs of the ostrich and send him turning somersaults 
upon the sand. The Indians leap from their saddles, and if 
they are out of meat, cut the throat of the bird and carry the 
carcass to camp ; but if they have no need of food, they pull 
the long plumes from his tail and wings and let him go again 
to gather fresh plumage for the next season. 

The bolas are handled with great dexterity, and well 
trained Indians are able to bring down an ostrich at a range 
of two or three hundred yards. But it is not often necessary 
to fire at that distance. Horses accustomed to the chase can 
overtake a bird on an unobstructed plain, but the birds have 
the advantage of being artful dodgers, and carrying so much 
less weight, can turn and reverse quite suddenly. The usual 
mode of hunting, is for a dozen or so of mounted Indians to 
surround a herd and charge upon them suddenly. In this 
way several are usually brought down before they scatter, and 
those that get away are pursued. As they dodge from one 
hunter they usually run across the range of another, and the 
first they know they are tripped by the entangling bolas. 
People passing through the Straits often stop over a steamer 
at Puenta Arenas and enjoy an ostrich chase. They can secure 
trained horses and guides at moderate prices; but one who 
has never thrown the bolas will be amazed to find how difficult 
it is to do a trick that looks so easy. 

Some years ago, a young English lord, who went down to 
exterminate the ostrich family, came very near being lynched 



434 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

for manslaughter, as the first bolas he threw took one of the 
half breed guides under the ear and laid him out as cold as a 
wedge. His lordship made suitable provision for the family 
of his victim, and the deceased man's partner immediately 
took up with the bereaved widow without the formality of a 
wedding ceremony; the bride and groom omitted the usual 
period of mourning and appeared to be much gratified at the 
results of his lordship's visit. Of course the neighbors were 
scandalized, but the marriage was useful in diverting public 
attention from the accident, and the reckless scion of the 
nobility slipped away to Valparaiso without explaining matters 
to the courts. 

In the harbor of Puenta Arenas lies an old iron hulk, now 
used as a coalyard from which to supply passing vessels, 
which has a remarkable history. About three years ago a 
steamer passing through the straits saw a vessel drifting 
around with the currents, and, not receiving any reply to the 
signals displayed, sent off a boat's crew to ascertain the 
trouble. It was discovered that she was water logged and 
rudderless and without a soul on board except a cat. The dis- 
coverers towed her into Puenta Arenas and anchored her 
where she now lies. This ocean waif turned out to be a 
collier from Scotland, bound for the west coast of South 
America ; and it is supposed that she was abandoned in a storm 
by her officers and crew off the Horn, and that they all per- 
ished, for none of them was ever heard from. The vessel had 
drifted about until she caught the current which pours 
through the Straits at the rate of six knots an hour, and was 
by it carried into smooth water, where she had been drifting 
like a log no one can tell how long. According to calculations 
based upon the date of her departure from Cardiff and her 
ordinary rate of speed, at least six or eight weeks must have 
elapsed between the time of her abandonment and that of her 
discovery. The cargo of coal was found to be partially under 
water, but in good condition, and her captors made a good 
thing of it. 

Tierra del Fuego promises to be another Klondike, although 
it has been only partially explored, and the climate is even 



SOUTHERN CHILE AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO 435 

more severe than that of Alaska. Coal, copper, silver, and 
other minerals have been found in great abundance but the 
gold deposits are so easily reached and worked that the 
prospectors do not pay much attention to the other metals. 
Gold was first discovered by some shipwrecked seamen in 1876 
while they were digging for water. Strange as it may seem, 
one can often find fresh water by sinking a pit only a little 
distance from the sea. The salt seems to be extracted from 
the sea water as it filters through the sand, and those sailors 
knew, the trick. When they had digged a hole, about three feet 
deep, they reached a strata of black sand that sparkled with 
particles of gold and traced it down under the beach out into 
the ocean. When the party were rescued and carried their 
story to Puenta Arenas, it created great excitement, and a 
village of about 120 miners of all nations soon sprang up near 
the spot. It was found that this layer of black sand extended 
some distance back from the beach and under the waters 
where it could only be reached at low tide or by sinking a 
cofferdam. The washings paid ordinary miners with primitive 
appliances from fifteen to twenty dollars a day, but after a 
time, the yield began to fall off and most of the miners 
deserted the place to look for other deposits. Some of them 
starved to death; some were frozen; others were killed by 
the Indians, and a few returned to Puenta Arenas with dis- 
tressing stories of their experience, which had the effect of 
subduing the gold excitement. 

In 1884, the steamer Arctic went ashore near Cape Virgin 
at the eastern end of the archipelago and the crew and passen- 
gers, who managed to save themselves and sufficient provisions 
to sustain them for some time, discovered similar deposits 
near the beach in banks composed of layers of clay, pebbles, 
sand and shells. When they reached civilization, they 
exhibited a large quantity of gold and their adventures having 
been reported to the Argentine Government, a commission of 
mineralogists was sent down to explore. Upon their reports a 
company was organized which has since been working with 
fair profits at a place called El Paramo (the Spanish term for 
desert). With that camp as a center, prospectors have 



436 BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE OCEAN 

explored the bleak country and have found other large deposits 
of gold bearing black magnetic sand, similar to those de- 
scribed. Mining camps have been established at Lenox 
Island, Slogget's Bay and at several other places, and con- 
siderable gold is brought into Puenta Arenas which is the 
market and outfitting point, and the only source of supplies. 
It is believed that the gold was washed down from the 
mountains by the streams, but the mother veins have never 
been discovered, because of difficulties that are too great to 
be overcome. The mountains and hills are covered with 
heavy snow the greater part of the year ; the cold is intense ; 
storms are frequent and the Indians are hostile and savage. 
There is probably no mining country on earth where such 
serious difficulties are encountered. 

The Firelanders, as the inhabitants of the Tierra del Fuego 
are familiarly known, are among the lowest and most degraded 
of human beings, resembling the Digger Indians in their 
mental and moral condition. Although living in a perpetual 
winter, they wear little clothing, and live entirely upon fish 
and the flesh of sea animals which they catch with rude 
implements. They divide their time between canoes, or 
dugouts made of the trunks of trees, in which they paddle 
through the Straits, and rude huts sheltered from the fierce 
winds by the rocks in the mountains. When night comes they 
go ashore and build fires to temper the frigid atmosphere, 
and, seeing them blazing over the archipelago, the early 
navigators called it Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire. Bishop 
Stirling of the Church of England, an energetic and patient 
man, who has charge of the diocese of South America, and 
whose genial face is familiar throughout Brazil, and the 
Argentine Republic, as well as the countries of the west coast, 
has been working for thirty years among these depraved 
creatures with no great success. At least one of his missionary 
parties was eaten by the subjects of their prayers, and another 
party came to a tragic end by starvation. Bishop Stirling 
himself has had narrow escapes from the appetites and 
passions of his parishioners, but still believes the Fuegans are 



SOUTHERN CHILE AND TIERRA DEL FUEGO 437 

within the reach of saving grace and is patiently trying to 
civilize them. 

The Araucanian Indians, the native race of southern 
Chile, have never been subdued by the whites and are much 
superior in every respect to the Fuegans. The government 
has attempted to absorb and assimilate them in a manner that 
has been remarkably successful. The land they occupy is 
divided among them in severalty, their hereditary chiefs 
have been made their magistrates and they are now almost 
entirely engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. They 
retain their language and many of their aboriginal customs 
and have been greatly demoralized by the unrestricted sale 
of liquor, but are improving continually and advancing towards 
civilization more rapidly than any other of the native races in 
South America. 

Patagonia is pretty well settled and civilized. The 
aborigines are either extinct or have been amalgamated with 
the remainder of the population. The greater part of the 
men are in the army and the women have been distributed 
through the country as servants. The Argentine government 
has given special attention to the development of that part of 
its territory with remarkable success. 



THE END 



INDEX. 



of 



96, 

Pan- 



55. 



Agriculture in Bolivia . 
Chili . 
" Peru 

" on Isthmus 

ama . 

Alameda, Santiago . . 
Alfaro, President Ecuador 
Alonzo, President Bolivia. 

Alpaca, wool 

Anderson, Thomas H. 
Andes, Avalanches in . . 
" Description of 
" Passes in . . . 
" Peaks of . . 222 
1 ' Railways in . . 
52, 195, 204, 218, 286, 323, 
Andes, Snow line of . . 
' ' Tunnels in . . . 
Arucanian Indians . . . 
Arbitration between Chile 

Argentina 

Arce, President Bolivia . 
Arequipa and Pufio Railroad . 

Arequipa, City of 

Argentine-Chile Boundary 406, 
Argentina, Religious Contro- 
versy 

Aristocracy, Bolivia . 
Chile . . 
Arica, Town of . . . 
Armstrong, Miss Clara 
Army of Chile . . . 
" Peru . . . 
Antofagasta, City of . 



PAGE 

282 
429 
225 



419. 
387, 

384, 
I96, 



and 
406, 



11 

39° 
, 81 
312 
251 
328 
421 

415 
421 

415 

417 
417 
424 

437 

410 

327 
219 

235 

414 

174 
310 
394 
353 
174 

395 

157 
369 



PAGE 

Bahama Archipelago .... 4 

Bailey, Prof. Solon 1 238 

Balmaceda, President of Chile . 409 
Balsas (boats), Peruvian . . 66, 270 
Baltimore Affair in Chile . . 410 
Bandelier, Prof. Adolf . . . 275 

Beggars in Chile 401 

Blaine, Relations with Chile . 410 
Bolivia, Complications with Chile 407 

Boynton, Paul 106 

Bridge, The Inca's 421 

Bull Fight, Bolivia 303 

Cacao (chocolate), Cultivation of 55 
Caceras, President Peru . . . 136 

Callao, City of 103 

Callaguayas (Indian doctors) . 338 
Camaafio, President of Ecuador 83 

Canal, Panama 13 

Candamo, Sefior, Peru . . . 130 

Capitol Bolivia 311 

Caro Chico, Bullfighter . . . 305 
Casapalca, Mines and Smelter . 196 

Cats in Bolivia 293 

Cathedral, Lima 112 

Cemeteries 67, 161 

Cerro de Pasco Mines .... 202 
Cinchona (quinine) .... 346 

Chagres River 14 

Chile, Agriculture in . . . . 429 
" Argentine Boundary . 406, 414 

" Coal Mines 430 

" Educational System . . 429 
" Peru Complications . . 407 



439 



44© 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Chile, Relations with United 

States 408 

Chile, Revolution of '91 . . . 409 

" Wealth of 408 

Chicha (liquor) 232 

Chillalaya, City of 279 

Chimborazo, Mountain ... 42 

Chiriqui, Colony 12 

Church in Peru ...... 159 

Climate of West Coast . 9, 31, 42 

" Bolivia 295 

Coal on Isthmus and West Coast 

27, 100, 430 

Coati, Island of 273 

Cocoa, Use of 347 

Cocos, Island 38 

Coffee, Bolivia 346 

Colon, City of 5 

Columbus, Landing Place . . 3 

Commerce of Bolivia .... 279 

Chile 376 

" Ecuador ... 73 

" Peru 144 

" Nitrate Regions . 360 

Commercial Travelers ... 78 

Condor, The 425 

Congress of Peru 146 

Copocabana, Shrine of . . . 329 
Cordilleras de Los Andes . 22, 414 

Cotopaxi 92 

Cotton, Peruvian 98 

Crucero Alto, Town of . . . 231 

Crusoe, Robinson, Island of . 426 

Customs, Bolivian 296 

Cousino 390 

Cumbre of Andes 420 

Cuzco, City of 253 

Darwin, Mount 414 

Deserts, Peruvian 

42, 98, 206, 222, 231 

Drummers in South America . 78 

Drunkenness in Chile .... 399 

Dudley, Irving D 112 

Dueling 161 



PAGE 

Earthquakes 64, 104 

Education in Peru 153 

" Ecuador ... 61, 87 

" Chile 429 

Bolivia .... 343 
Egan, Patrick, Minister to Chile 409 

Eten, Town of 95 

Errazuriz, President of Chile . 406 

Farming in Bolivia ..... 282 

Chile 393 

Finances, Chile 379 

" Ecuador 90 

" Peru 139 

Firelanders (Tierra del Fuego) 436 

Fortune Island 5 

Funerals in Peru 117 

Galapagos Islands 49 

Gallera Tunnel 196 

Gold Mining in Tierra del Fuego 435 

Grau, Admiral 107 

Guanaco 250 

Guano 215 

Guayaquil, City of . . . .. 46, 62 
Guayas River, Ecuador ... 46 

Harmon, Archer, Ecuador Rail- 
way 52 

Harrison, President, and Chile 409 
Hartford, Charles, Treasure 

Hunter 40 

Harvard Observatory, Peru . 238 

Hats, Panama 74 

Hatteras, Cape, Weather . . 2 

Highways, Inca 259 

Holidays in Chile 399 

Homes, Bolivia 291 

Horses, South American . 353, 402 

Huanchaca Mines 323 

Humboldt Current 43 

Inca Remains . . . 200, 206, 267 

" Traditions 267 

Indians of Bolivia . . . 313, 344 



INDEX 



441 



PAGE 

Indians of Ecuador . . . 53. 59 
" Tierra del Fuego . 436 

Irrigation, Peru 200 

Iquique, Town of 369 

Island of Titicaca 269 

I sthmus, Voyage from N ew York 1 
Itata Controversy 409 

Juan Fernandez, Island of . . 426 

Labor, Scarcity of 156 

Lake Titicaca . 227 

La Paz, City of 287 

Lima, City of no 

Llama Transportation . . . 245 
Lotteries 169, 181 

Meiggs, Henry 195. 204 

Mining in Peru 203, 261 

" Bolivia 321 

" Tierra del Fuego . . 432 

Misti, Volcano 220, 235 

Mollendo, Town of 218 

Monasteries 184, 290 

Monks, Descalzos 180 

" Franciscan 186 

Money, Ecuador 90 

" Peru 139 

Chile ....... 379 

Moreno, President of Ecuador . 82 
Mountains of South America 46. 415 

Mummies' Eyes 356 

" Inca 213 

Navassa Island ....'. 4 

Navy of Chile 395 

Nitrate Deserts 359 

North, Col., Nitrate King . . 365 

Nunneries, Bolivia 290 

Nunez, President of Colombia . 10 

Opera in Chile 399 

Oroya Railroad 195 

Ostriches, Patagonia .... 433 



PAGE 

Pacasmayo, Town of . . . . 10 1 

Pacific Current 42 

Pachacamac, Inca Ruins . . 206 

Paita, Town of 95 

Pampas of Peru 222 

Chile 358 

Pando, President. Bolivia . . 313 

Panama, City of 24 

Hats 74 

" Railroad 7 

" Canal 13 

Pardo, President, Peru ... 130 

Passes of Andes 4 X 9 

Patagonia Sheep 432 

" Ostriches .... 433 

Peaks of Andes 42, 92, 222, 387, 415 

Pearl Fishing 34 

Penitentiary of Peru .... 177 

Penny Romance, The . . . 327 

Peru-Chile Complications . . 407 

Petroleum, Peru 99 

Pierola, President of Peru . 128, 150 

Pillar Cape 431 

Pisco Wines 214 

Piura, Town of 98 

Pizarro's Expedition .... 

26, 98, in, 207, 353 

Politics, Bolivian 311 

Population of Bolivia .... 343 

Potato, Native of Peru ... 114 

Potosi, Mines of 323 

Pratt, Captain Arthur .... 108 

Prestan, Revolution, Panama . 10 

Protestant Worship, Peru . . 163 

Puenta del Inca 421 

Punta Arinas, Town of . . . 432 

Puna, The 4*5 

Quesada-Miro, Antonio ... 142 

Railways in Andes 

52, 195, 204, 218, 286, 323, 384, 417 

Railroad, The Panama ... 7 

Rainfall, Panama and Colon . 9 

" Peru and Chile . . . 356 



442 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Religious Customs ... 67, 81, 97 

in, 122, 169, 193, 242, 298, 330, 337 

Religion, Inca . . . 211, 233, 269 

Resources of Bolivia .... 342 

Revenues of Peru 143 

" Chile 379 

" Ecuador .... 90 

Revolution in. Bolivia 
Chile 
' ' Colombia 

" Ecuador 

Peru . 



Rimac River . . . 
Roads, Royal, Inca 
Roca, President, Argentine 

public . . 
Romana, President, Peru 
Rosa, Saint . . , 
Roundtree, Captain 
Rubber Forests . 
Ruins, Inca 



. 312 

• 409 

10 

67, 84 



127 
197 
259 



Re- 



• 175 
. 128 
. 191 

1 if 30 

• 345 



206, 253, 271, 275 



St. James, Miracles of . . . 215 

Salt 114 

Santa Lucia, Park, Santiago . 38S 

Santo Domingo Mines . . . 261 

Sarmiento Mount .... 414, 432 

Scenery, Peru 200 

Selkirk, Alexander 426 

Sharks, Panama Harbor ... 32 

Sheep in Patagonia .... 432 

Shipping, West Coast .... 363 

Silver Product, Peru . . . . 215 

" " Bolivia . . . 321 

Siroche, Disease .... 199, 420 

Smythe's Channel 430 

Snow Line in Andes .... 417 

Society in Lima 117 

Soda, Nitrate of 367 

Southern Railroad of Peru . . 219 

Steamship Communications . 376 

Storms, Chile 371 



PAGE 

Straits of Magellan . . . 414, 430 

Sucre, City of 319 

Surumpe, Disease 422 

Tarapaca Desert 408 

Temperature . . . . 9, 31, 42, 229 

" in Bolivia . . . 295 

Thorndike, John L. . . . 219, 375 

Tierra del Fuego 431 

Titicaca, Lake 265 

Tovar, Archbishop . . . 122, 160 

Transportation, Bolivia . . . 279 

" Peru .... 245 

Tunnels in Andes .... 196, 424 

United States, Relations with 

Chile 408 

University of Peru 155 

Uspallata Pass 420 

Valparaiso, City of 371 

Verrugas, Bridge and Disease . 198 

Vicuna 250 

Volcanoes in Andes . . 42, 92, 418 
Vin del Mar, Town of . . . . 385 
Voyage on Pacific 42 

Wages in Chile 401 

Water in Desert . . 42, 96, 220, 364 
Watling's Island, Columbus 

Landfall 3 

Weather on Pacific Ocean . . 42 
Wheelwright, William . . 28, 375 

Witchcraft in Peru 103 

Women of Bolivia . . . 299, 300 

" Peru 118 

Wood, Rev. Dr. Thomas B. .163 

Yellow Fever 32 

Zona Seca 42 



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